U.S. crude oil prices topped $102 per barrel on Thursday, their highest closing level since May, completing what traders call a roundtrip, meaning a fall from a price level followed by a recovery back to roughly the same place. Whether that level holds may depend on China.
The $102 figure is a closing price. Here is what that means: the official end-of-day settlement, not an intraday peak. Prices can trade higher during a session and still finish below a threshold. Thursday, crude finished above $102, the first such close since May.
Prices had traded above $100 earlier in the year before pulling back. Thursday's settlement put them back there. The roundtrip is complete.
China is the open variable in what oil does next.