Crude oil fell on Tuesday, snapping four days of gains, on concern a U.S. government report will show stockpiles climbed from the highest level since September 1990. Crude oil for June delivery declined as much as 77 cents, or 1.4 per cent, to $53.70 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil is up 21 per cent this year.
Oil prices vaulted 9 per cent in NY Thursday, in tandem with a powerful stocks rally, as investors cheered G20 agreements to combat the global downturn and an easing of US accounting rules. On Friday, oil prices settled above $52 a barrel, slightly lower on the day after a report that US unemployment in March soared to a 25-year high. But optimism that the economy will soon turn around curtailed losses.
OAO Lukoil, Russia’s biggest independent oil producer, reported that second-quarter profit jumped by 64 percent as crude prices rose and company refined higher quantities of oil. Artyom Konchin, oil and gas analyst at UniCredit Aton in Moscow, said: Lukoil’s sudden tendency to underperform will definitely weigh on the stock, especially considering that the second quarter [...]
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