Prices for the U.S. oil benchmark rallied Tuesday to finish at their highest in a week as traders eyed the approach of Hurricane Florence toward the East Coast and upcoming renewed sanctions on Iran. Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group, said the hurricane has the potential to cause flooding and power outages that could shut down the Colonial Pipeline, which moves gasoline and diesel from Houston through several states, including North and South Carolina, to New Jersey. Gas-price tracker GasBuddy also reported some shortages of gasoline at stations in the Carolinas, pointing to a spike in fuel demand ahead of the storm. October West Texas Intermediate oil CLV8, +0.65% rose $1.71, or 2.5%, to settle at $69.25 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
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