Oil Prices Hold Firm Near $52 LONDON (Reuters) - High-flying oil held just below its recent four-month peak on Tuesday as cold U.S. weather drove heating oil demand and held the interest of investment funds, attracted by a tight global supply and demand balance. U.S. light crude futures (CLc1: Quote , Profile , Research ) shed 10 cents to $51.65 a barrel, just below a four-month peak of $52.28 struck on Monday. London Brent crude (LCOc1: Quote , Profile , Research ) sat down seven cents at $49.99 a barrel. "It's still that supply and demand story," said Michael Lewis, head of commodities research at Deutsche Bank. "The underlying demand and supply situation is still extremely tight." Cold weather in the U.S. and Europe has tightened up demand for heating fuels over the past fortnight, helping drag prices up out of an early-February dip to set Monday's peak. Industry analysts predicted on Monday that colder than normal temperatures in the U.S. Northeast had contributed to a sixth straight fall in distillate inventories last week. The U.S. government will release its weekly inventory report on Wednesday. Heating oil supplies are already seven percent below year-ago levels. Cold weather looked set to continue. U.S. demand for heating oil was expected to rise about 14 percent above normal this week as a major winter storm ran the length of the East Coast, the U.S. National Weather Service said. Northwest Europe could also expect colder than usual weather for the next week and a half, private forecaster Meteorlogix said. Dollar weakness has also helped attract buying, as institutional investors have leapt into commodities to hedge against the sliding greenback, which has lost three percent of its value against the euro in the last three weeks. The influx of speculative money has helped oil gain more than $6 in that time. OPEC BACKS OFF CUT TALK     Continued ... Quelle "Oil Prices Hold Firm Near $52" : reuters.com Main page for "Oil Prices Hold Firm Near $52"