HOUSTON (AP) -- Oil prices approached $75 a barrel Monday for the first time in 10 months amid growing optimism that the world's economies are on the mend.

Benchmark crude for October delivery rose 48 cents to settle at $74.37 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil last topped $75 in October and on Monday, prices came within 19 cents of that mark.

Natural gas rebounded strongly from new seven-year lows Monday, yet still traded below $3 per 1,000 cubic feet because of a huge glut and very little demand from major industrial customers.

Expectations that demand for energy will grow, at least for oil and gasoline, were spurred Friday by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who said the U.S. economy is reviving. Bernanke's remarks and signs of improvement in the U.S. housing market sent stock markets higher, and that carried over into the new week.

Even before Bernanke spoke, however, prices already had begun to rise on a large and unexpected drawdown in U.S. oil supplies. One factor that might be keeping crude below $75 is the possibility that last week's storage report was an aberration, given that demand for now remains weak.

Equity and energy markets have been rising and falling in tandem for weeks and at the start of this week,

TRENTON, New Jersey (AP) -- Shares of Irish drugmaker Warner Chilcott PLC jumped more than 26 percent Monday on news it will more than triple its revenue and dramatically expand its product lines by buying Procter & Gamble Co.'s prescription drug business for $3.1 billion.

Warner Chilcott, which specializes in women's health and dermatology products, will get a portfolio with $2.3 billion in annual sales, boost its offerings in women's health with a blockbuster osteoporosis treatment and get a toehold in the urology and gastroenterology markets.

The deal also brings the Ardee, Irish company an unspecified number of Procter and Gamble's prescription drugs in development and manufacturing facilities in Puerto Rico and Germany.

Just the top drug that Warner Chilcott gets in the deal, Actonel for osteoporosis, with more than $1 billion in annual sales, exceeds the company's 2008 revenue of $938 million. Warner Chilcott also gains colitis drug Asacol HD, bone drug Didronel and Enablex for overactive bladder.

"The acquisition of the P&G pharmaceutical brands and employee talent is a transformational, strategic move for us," said Roger Boissonneault, Warner Chilcott's president and chief executive.

Warner Chilcott's products include some well-known oral contraceptives -- Loestrin 24 FE, Femcon FE and Ovcon -- plus multiple treatments for menopause symptoms such as hot flashes and vaginal dryness, including Femhrt, Femring and Estrace. It also sells skin products such as acne treatment Doryx, Pyridium