From the Associated Press:
..Light, sweet crude for December delivery rose $5.56 to $68.29 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract settled at $62.73 Tuesday, the lowest closing price since May 2007.
Oil prices have fallen by 55 percent since peaking at $147 a barrel in mid-July.
Oil investors have been tracking equity indexes for signs of market sentiment. They took heart from a rally in stocks that began Tuesday in the U.S. and continued in Asia and Europe on Wednesday.
But oil trader and analyst Stephen Schork did not read much into Wednesday's rally.
He credited the rise in oil prices on the dollar weakening against the euro in anticipation of a half-point rate cut Wednesday afternoon by the Federal Reserve and an oversold market for crude.
Investors often buy commodities such as crude oil as an inflation hedge when the dollar weakens and sell those investments when the greenback rises.
"Anyone who thinks a bottom is in, I'll sell them all the oil they want," Schork said.