OIL TOPS $82 PER BARREL

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From USA Today:

Oil futures rose to records Tuesday after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a larger-than-expected half percentage point, raising market hopes that economic growth will accelerate and lift demand even as crude oil and gasoline inventories are tight.

A barrel of crude surged to a new trading high of $81.90 on the New York Mercantile Exchange in the moments immediately after the Fed's decision.

Investors had already priced a quarter-point cut in the benchmark federal funds rate into the market, said Brad Samples, a commodities analyst at Summit Energy Services in Louisville The half-point cut spurred even more buying.

Moreover, many analysts see a weaker dollar as a natural side effect of lower rates, and that could promote buying of oil contracts by foreign investors.

"Lower interest rates have the unintended consequence of raising oil prices if the dollar declines relative to other currencies," said Larry Chorn, chief economist at Platts, the energy research arm of McGraw-Hill, in a statement.

"Seen through a euro or yen prism, nominal (New York Mercantile Exchange crude) prices have yet to reach their 2006 highs," said Antoine Halff, head of energy research at Fimat USA, in a research note.