Oil firms up at $49

Oil prices firmed up yesterday, as fuel supplies could take a beating from the harsh winters of the Northeast.

London Brent crude futures traded up 7 cents at $45.03 a barrel. With the New York oil market, shut for the Martin Luther King Day holiday, trading was thin .

US light crude on the NYMEX rallied to an intraday peak at $49.25 a barrel and finally settled at $49.04, up 66 cents from last Friday.