A variety of other factors also propelled prices higher, including concerns over Hurricane Florence and some storms moving toward the Gulf of Mexico, tightening global oil supplies due to U.S. sanctions against Iran, and weakness in the dollar, analysts said. Light, sweet crude for October delivery ended 1.6% higher at $70.37 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. U.S. prices also rose sharply Tuesday, and the two-day surge marked the largest dollar and percentage gains since late June. Brent crude, the global benchmark, rose 0.9% to $79.74 a barrel. “We have a myriad of largely bullish short-term factors: Iran sanctions taking hold, bullish U.S. inventory data, some market voodoo as we bounced off the 100-day moving average, [and] a downward production expectation,” said Ethan Bellamy, senior analyst at Baird. “Add to that some concern about hurricane probability in the Gulf of Mexico, and we have ourselves a nice […]