Crude up in Asia on bargain-hunting

SINGAPORE: Crude rebounded in Asia Thursday with traders on a bargain-hunting spree after prices plunged as the US "fiscal cliff" loomed and European fears resurfaced, analysts said.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in December, added 38 cents to $84.82 a barrel and Brent North Sea crude for December delivery gained 52 cents to $107.34.
"We had quite a large move down yesterday as the worries over the fiscal cliff and European woes started to more than usurp the euphoria over the Obama re-election," Jason Hughes, head of premium client management for IG Markets Singapore told.
"Today in Asian trade prices have pushed back up... it's probably people covering positions after a big move."
Barack Obama's hard-fought victory, coupled with Republican control of the House of Representatives and the Democratic-majority Senate, worried traders, who fear more policy deadlock in the world's biggest oil consumer.
A combination of dramatic spending cuts and tax increases will take effect on January 1 without a deal on reducing the ballooning budget deficit, with Democrats and Republicans in Congress locked in a who-blinks-first stand-off.
Elsewhere, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi's gloomy words on the 17-nation eurozone reignited fears over the frailty of the region.
"Unemployment is deplorably high. Overall economic activity is weak and it is expected to remain weak in the near term," Draghi told a banking conference in Frankfurt on Wednesday.