$100 oil ... Will today be the day?

For about the past month now it has looked as though $100 oil was on the horizon, but could today finally be the day that we do indeed see prices crossing through the psychological $100 barrier? Don't be too surprised if it is, with prices already trading above $99 ahead of today's inventory report.

Later this morning we are going to get a very important piece of information from the US Energy Department when it reports last week's inventory numbers. Analysts are expected to see a rise in inventories of 800,000 barrels, but the market has been acting as if it believes we will not see this much of an increase. With prices flirting so close to the $100 mark you can be sure that if inventories do come in below expectations we will be reading about $100 oil before the end of the day.

We will also be watching for gasoline supplies. On average, analysts are expecting to see a 700,000 lift in gasoline inventories in this week's report. While gasoline did fall a bit last night, we are still looking at a national average of $3.09 for a gallon of regular unleaded. This is an amazing increase from the average this time last year when prices at the pump were $2.24, but down from the high of $3.23 we saw back on May 24.

Today's inventory report should be out 10:30 AM EST, and we will post the results as they become available.

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last two years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.