Pension funds making commodity index investments last week helped boost oil prices to more than $55 a barrel, following a 19-month low of $49.90 earlier in January, according to a report from Lehman Brothers. Pension funds are on track to put $25 billion into commodities this year, according to the report, issued Jan. 26.
"Prices have rallied 7% from their lows last week as pension funds with 2007 commodity allocations finally entered the market in a big way," investing in indexes including the Lehman Brothers Commodity index and the Goldman Sachs Commodity index during the week, the report said.
