Crude oil climbs above $79

NEW YORK, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Crude oil prices climbed over $79 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Tuesday, ahead of Wednesday's inventory report.

The volatility of equities in October was largely ignored by the oil market, but chief researcher at JBC Energy GmbH David Wech told MaketWatch prices were due for a fall.

"Oil is overpriced at the moment. We expect it to fall back to below $70 a barrel. That's based on all the fundamental factors," he said.

Light, sweet crude dropped overnight in New York then added $1.37 to $79.50 per barrel. Heating oil gained 0.019 cents to $2.065 per gallon. Reformulated blend stock gasoline prices rose 0.0047 cents to $1.995 per gallon. Natural gas rose 0.098 cents to $4.922 per million British thermal units.

At the pump, the national average price of unleaded gasoline was $2.686 per gallon Tuesday, down form $2.691, AAA said.