Crude oil holds near $79 per barrel

NEW YORK, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- Crude oil prices held above $79 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Wednesday, as the dollar rose.

The dollar index gained 0.08 Wednesday. The index measures the dollar's value compared to a host of other currencies.

In addition, gains in Asian economies are supporting crude oil prices, market analysts at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. said.

The price of light, sweet crude rose 20 cents to $79.25 per barrel. Heating oil prices lost 0.00003 cents to $2.052 per gallon. Reformulated gasoline prices rose 0.0161 cents to $1.9935 per gallon. The price of natural gas rose 0.022 cents to $4.489 per million British thermal units.

At the pump, the national average price of unleaded gasoline was $2.654 per gallon Wednesday, down from Tuesday's $2.658, AAA said.