Crude oil redirects, heads higher

Crude oil prices turned higher Friday morning on the New York Mercantile Exchange, closing in on $90 per barrel with an upward correction. Prices plunged below the three-week established range between $88 to $92 per barrel Thursday, after the European Central Bank said it would leave monetary policy intact, which disappointed investors. Prices bottomed out overnight and quickly made up for the drop and kept going. West Texas Intermediate crude oil prices with September delivery contracts gained $2.60 to $89.73 per barrel. Reformulated blendstock gasoline added 3.37 cents to $2.9033 per gallon. Home heating oil gained 4.85 cent to $2.8908 per gallon. Natural gas was at $2.914 per million British thermal units, off 0.6 cents. At the pump, the national average price of unleaded gasoline jumped to $3.567 per gallon from Thursday's $3.534, AAA said.