US consumer spending rose at its fastest pace in five months in July, a Commerce Department report said, helping boost equities on Wall Street and pushing up the S&P 500 index nearly 2 percent.

But the lingering risk of recession was underscored by a separate report on Monday showing pending home resales fell 1.3 percent last month.

“The spending data helped Wall Street take off, and oil rose on the hope some of that spending will be on gasoline,” said Phil Flynn, analyst at PFGBest Research in Chicago.

“The weaker dollar index also was supportive, along with the fact that refiners didn’t seem to get hurt by Irene,” Flynn added.

Global equities advanced ahead of Wall Street’s open on hopes the Federal Reserve might eventually launch a third round of quantitative easing (QE3) after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke left the door open for further action in a speech on Friday at an annual event in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Brokers and analysts said crude futures were supported by news that most US oil refiners and energy companies were restoring operations after Hurricane Irene, though at least one crude unit was shut because of flooded pumps.

US gasoline and heating oil futures’ gains lagged behind crude on relief that Northeast region refineries did not experience catastrophic damage like facilities on the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina and because widespread flooding and power outages were expected to dampen fuel demand after Irene.

Trading volumes were hampered by a public holiday in the UK and New York-area traders out in the aftermath of the storm. After midday in New York, Brent volumes were 70 percent and US volumes 62 percent below 30-day averages.

Brent October crude rose 85 cents to $112.21 a barrel by 12:53 p.m. (1653 GMT), having reached $112.73, highest intraday price since Aug. 4.

US October crude rose $1.85, or 2.17 percent, to $87.22 a barrel, having reached $87.62, highest since Aug. 17.

Brent’s premium to US crude was lower at $25.06 a barrel, having slipped below $25 intraday. The premium reached a record $26.69 on Aug. 19.

The US East Coast oil industry began to assess the impact of Hurricane Irene’s weekend brush with the coast.

A crude unit at the Girard Point section of Sunoco Inc’s Philadelphia refinery shut down because of a flooded crude-charge pumps, lowering some production, a source said.

But the Marcus Hook section of the refinery was ramping up rates.

ConocoPhillips Inc’s 238,000-barrels-per-day Bayway refinery in Linden, New Jersey, remained shut, according to sources and a report from the Department of Energy.

Libyan rebel forces converged on Muammar Qaddafi’s hometown of Sirte, hoping to solidify their revolution as they continue to root out forces still loyal to the fallen but perhaps still dangerous strongman.

Libya’s new government plans to restart production at two eastern oil fields in mid-September and resume shipping oil from Tobruk by the end of the same month.

Ras Lanuf, Libya’s largest oil refinery, is intact despite recent intense fighting, and staff are preparing a restart, its general manager told Reuters.

Libya produced about 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil before the civil war.