Oil prices soar above $82

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Oil prices soared Monday as Europe inched closer to a solution for Greece's debt crisis, sending the dollar down against the euro.

What prices are doing: Crude oil prices for May delivery rose $2.17 to settle at $82.17 a barrel. After four weeks of declines, prices began the week down just $1.01 below a 2010 peak of about $83.18 a barrel.

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For more commodities prices, click chart.

What's moving the market: Prices soared amid hope that Europe is closer to a solution to Greece's lingering debt problems.

Late last week, members of the euro zone, the 16 nations that share the euro as a common currency, agreed to a French and German led funding proposal, involving the International Monetary Fund.

This helped push the dollar down 0.38% versus the euro to $1.3462 in afternoon trading. A weaker dollar makes crude, which is priced in the U.S. currency, cheaper for foreign investors. This tends to bolster oil demand and prices.

Also helping to prop up oil prices was an earlier report from The Commerce Department that said personal spending rose in February, in line with analysts' expectations. The news fed traders' hopes that demand for crude would improve, which should support higher crude oil prices.

What analysts are saying: Despite Monday's spike, many analysts expect oil to trade in the $78 to $79 a barrel range this week, as traders watch for Greek solutions that really stick.

"One of the main determinants of energies this week is expected to be the reaction to the European Union's agreement with the IMF to backstop Greek debt," said Tom Pawlicki of MF Global in a report.

"We believe this will be negative for energy prices," he said.

According to Hamza Khan, a commodities analyst for The Schork Group, today's rebound in crude prices is "purely speculative" and a typical response to the sharp declines seen over the past four weeks.

"Whenever prices drop very quickly [as they did last week], they have a tendency to bounce a bit before dropping further," he said. "But like a dead cat, just because it bounces a little doesn't mean it's alive."

Khan adds that uncertainty fueled by terrorist attacks in Russia on Monday may help to boost prices, as investors move away from riskier assets like equities and into safer bets like commodities.

Looking ahead: Investors will digest a host of data this week, including weekly crude inventory reports, jobs and housing data, as well as consumer confidence due out later this week.

Crude oil prices may also get a boost from improving demand reports and payroll data, but changes in the dollar versus the euro are expected to have an overwhelming effect on prices as it has over the past several weeks.