NYMEX WTI crude oil futures gain around 2%

Yahoo Finance's Jared Blikre discusses how NYMEX WTI crude oil February futures settled at $79.36 a barrel.

Video Transcript

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Welcome back, everybody. Time for the latest on oil. The numbers settling just moments ago. We've got Jared Blikre here to wrap it all up for us. Jared.

JARED BLIKRE: That's right. WTI crude futures for February settlement, they closed at-- excuse me-- $79.46 a barrel just minutes ago. That's good for about 2% gains. And let's check out the market action on a two-month candlestick chart because since the bottom in early December, it's basically been from the lower left to the upper right. And we are building on those gains today, almost up to $80 a barrel. Worth remembering we were in the low 60s only a month ago.

And with the OPEC+ decision in the rearview window, there's going to be a lot of focus on the demand picture. We'll get various estimates in the coming weeks from the International Energy Association, also the Energy Information Administration. That's part of the Department of Energy here in the US. Other than that, not a whole lot going on in the energy space, except that it's leading. Once again, three out of four days this year, energy has been on top of the markets.

And let's take a look at a four-day view here. We see ExxonMobil up nearly 12%. And let's actually get it back to the beginning of the rally that started just before Christmas. That's up 15% in 12 days right there, and some of the smaller players even more. Here's Occidental Petroleum up 21% over the trailing 12 days. Guys.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: All right. Thanks a lot, Jared Blikre.