Oil Prices Hit Six-Month High

Crude oil prices hit a six-month high Tuesday, as the value of the dollar dropped against major currencies and there was widespread expectation that the Federal Reserve will announce new measures to stimulate the economy.

Crude for December delivery rose 95 cents to end the day at $83.90 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up 1.2 percent. That's the highest it's been sine May 3, reports Bloomberg, and up 7.4 percent over the past year.

Another factor in the late-in-the-day trading was a report from the American Petroleum Institute that stockpiles of crude oil in the U.S. fell by more than 4 million barrels.

In addition, the top official for OPEC member Libya told Reuters he thought oil prices would get closer to $100 by year's end. Shokri Ghanem, chairman of Libya's National Oil Corp, said producers' income for dollar-denominated oil had declined while the cost of food and other commodities had risen due to the dollar's slump, Reuters reported.