SINGAPORE: US crude oil rose more than a dollar on Tuesday, supported by worries that escalating tensions between Iran and the West could lead to a major disruption in oil supplies.
FUNDAMENTALS
* NYMEX crude for February climbed $1.47 to $100.30 a barrel on the first trading day of the year. Prices closed 2011 up 8.2 percent for the year, averaging around $95 a barrel.
* Brent crude ended the year up 13.3 percent, averaging a record high $111 a barrel.
* Iran announce a nuclear fuel breakthrough and test-fired a new radar-evading medium-range missile in the Gulf on Sunday, moves that could further antagonise the West at a time when Tehran is trying to avert harsh new sanctions on its oil industry.
The announcement came at the climax of 10 days of naval exercises in the Gulf, during which Tehran has warned it could shut the Strait of Hormuz, through which 40 percent of world oil is shipped, if sanctions were imposed on its crude exports.
* US President Barack Obama signed a law on Saturday imposing tougher financial sanctions that could for the first time hurt Tehran's oil exports, while the European Union is due to consider similar steps soon.
MARKETS NEWS
* The euro fell to a decade low versus the Japanese yen on Monday with more falls expected as concerns about the financing needs of highly indebted euro zone countries plagued the shared currency into the new calendar year.
* Global manufacturing activity was subdued going into 2012, with the euro zone's industrial sector suffering its fifth straight month of declines in December and Asian factories mostly stuck in a rut.
* France's Nicolas Sarkozy will meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Jan. 9 for talks that are likely to centre on new rules to enforce budget discipline across the European Union.
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