Crude oil hovers above $88 per barrel

Crude oil prices made slight gains Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, hovering above $88 per barrel. In New York, West Texas Intermediate crude oil added 33 cents to $88.40 a barrel. Home heating oil gained 0.66 cents to reach $3.0635 a gallon while reformulated blendstock gasoline lost 0.57 cents to $2.7277 a gallon. Henry Hub natural gas gained 0.5 cent to $3.653 per million British thermal units. At the pump, AAA reported a national average price for regular unleaded gasoline at $3.402 per gallon, down from Thursday's $3.409. Crude oil has been taking its cue from equity markets in the aftermath of an Israeli-Palestinian flare-up of violence and a cease-fire announced Nov. 21. Overall, crude oil pricing has settling back to a normal supply-and-demand cycle since the market was jolted by a national election, Hurricane Sandy and the of Middle East violence. Prices spiked above $93 per barrel in mid-October, then were close to $85 per barrel most of November while stock markets took a beating, reducing confidence in commodities.