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Roshanak Taghavi reports on today’s action in the energy markets:

Crude-oil futures rose above $74 a barrel Friday on heightened concerns that a new tropical storm could be developing in the Atlantic Ocean and an upsurge in U.S. equities. The front-month October light, sweet crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange was up 86 cents, or 1.2%, at $74.22 a barrel. October Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange was up 93 cents at $72.83 a barrel.

Traders were paying extra attention Friday to four low pressure systems that have developed in the Atlantic basin, which could develop into a strong storm or hurricane. Atlantic hurricanes have the potential to enter the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and wreak havoc with energy installations there.

Crude oil and gasoline futures have been extremely volatile since Wednesday, when the U.S. Department of Energy reported gasoline inventories fell by a larger-than-expected 3.6 million barrels in the week ended Aug. 24. U.S. gasoline stocks now cover just 20 days of demand, the lowest level on record, according to the DOE’s Energy Information Administration. Expectations that gasoline supplies will tighten even more during the U.S. Labor Day holiday, when many Americans hit the road to attend celebrations and take vacations, has also added to traders’ concerns.

“We are maintaining a view that any strength in the crude oil or heating oil going forward will be driven almost entirely by a tight gasoline market,” said Jim Ritterbusch of Ritterbusch and Associates in Galena, Ill. in a research note. “We are still not ruling out a strong expiration today as the combination of near record low gasoline supply cover and a thin holiday trade could provide a recipe for a volatile session as today’s trade proceeds.”

Nymex September reformulated-gasoline blendstock was up 1.03 cents, or 0.5%, at $2.0904 a gallon. September heating oil was up 2.46 cents, or 1.2%, at $2.0530 a gallon.