UPDATE 10-Oil settles at 10-month high on economic optimism

                                
 * Fed Chairman Bernanke says world economy on mend
                                
 * U.S. July existing home sales jump
                                
 * U.S. equities up
 (Updates prices at settlement)
                                
 By Edward McAllister
                                
 NEW YORK, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Oil rose nearly $1 towards $74
a barrel to settle at a 10-month high on Friday as data in the
United States promised economic recovery and a potential
revival in energy demand.
                                
 U.S. crude for October delivery <CLc1> settled up 98 cents
at $73.89 per barrel, the highest settle since Oct. 20. London
Brent crude for October <LCOc1> settled up 86 cents at $74.19.
                                
 Crude rose $6.38 over the week, nearly 10 percent, from the
$67.51 settle on Aug. 14.
                                
 "The primary source of support again tended to be spill
over from the financial space that included a weakening dollar
and associated strengthening in the stock indexes," said Jim
Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch & Associates in Galena,
Illinois.
                                
 The dollar was down against the euro, helping to support
commodity prices, with investors showing some appetite for
risk.
                                
 Home sales data for July showed recovery in the U.S.
housing market, while Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke
said that the global economy appears to be recovering.
                                
 Bernanke told a Fed conference that the global economy was
on the mend, though critical challenges remain and recovery is
likely to be sluggish. [ID:nN2139655]
                                
 The U.S. National Association of Realtors said sales of
previously owned homes jumped 7.2 percent in July, the fastest
sales pace in nearly two years. [ID:nN21378170]
                                
 U.S. equities rose, sending the S&P 500 index to a 10-month
intraday high on economic optimism. [.N]
                                
 U.S. highway travel was up 2 percent in June compared with
a year ago, rising 4.9 billion miles (7.9 million kilometres)
to 256.7 billion miles, the U.S. Transportation Department
said. [ID:nN2142531]
                                
 TIGHTER REGULATION
                                
 Tighter regulation of the energy market may take the edge
off high prices, Commerzbank said in note on Thursday.
[ID:nLK66847]
                                
 "The significant rise in the oil price in the first half of
the year is due in large part to a recovery in investment by
financial investors," analyst Eugen Weinberg at Commerzbank
wrote in their Commodities Spotlight Energy newsletter.
                                
 "If their influence is reduced by the (Commodity Futures
Trading Commission's) actions and sanity prevails, the oil
price will fall."
                                
 The CFTC is widely expected to introduce stricter position
limits for nonphysical investors in commodities before the end
of 2009. [ID:nCFTCREG]
 (Additional reporting by Gene Ramos and Robert Gibbons in New
York, Chris Baldwin in London; editing by Marguerita Choy)