Crude oil for October delivery gained 51 cents to $73 a barrel in electronic trading on Globex. Earlier in the session, the contract rose to an intraday high of $73.35 a barrel. The Commerce Department reported Friday that consumer spending increased 0.2% last month, led by higher outlays for autos and other durable goods. Spending rose for the third month in a row. U.S. personal incomes were unchanged in July as the impact of federal-stimulus payments waned and wages rose for the first time in a year, data showed. On Wall Street, stock futures pointed to a higher opening, boosted by upbeat results from computer manufacturer Dell Inc. (DEL 51.69, 0.00, 0.00%) . Oil futures gained on Thursday, boosted by dollar weakness and a successful bond auction. Natural-gas prices down 4% October natural-gas futures, the new front-month contract, fell 13 cents, or 3.9%, to $3.083 per million British thermal units. "We think that the current events on the natural-gas market are largely the result of speculative activities," wrote analysts at Commerzbank in a note to clients. "The U.S. natural-gas price is likely to remain under pressure in the short term," they said. Natural-gas prices fell on Thursday after the government reported that working gas in storage rose by 54 billion cubic feet to stand at 3,258 Bcf during the week ended Aug. 21. Also on Globex Friday, September reformulated gasoline gained 0.5% to $2.0421 a gallon and September heating oil rose 0.8% to $1.8750 a gallon.

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