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.
Crude oil rose for the first time this week, as U.S. equities rallied and the Federal Reserve said several of the country’s biggest regional economies saw some moderation in the pace of their decline. For full story, click here
Along with OPEC production cuts and healthy company numbers, (both discussed below) the market is clearly disjointed. The tenor of discussions in the business pages and networks lately suggests that Yeats was right, and the centre cannot hold. Recession or recovery, echo boom or bust, few are predicting prolonged instability somewhere between these extremes.
Oil jumped for a third straight session on Wednesday to near $117 a barrel on growing supply concerns over Tropical Storm Gustav. Tetsu Emori, a fund manager at Astmax Co in Tokyo, said: I’m afraid (Gustav) could potentially cause an impact similar to hurricanes Katrina and Rita, although I certainly do not wish such things. For more [...]
Record crude oil prices boosted Total’s Q2 profit by 39%. A Paris-based analyst at Societe Generale SA said: Total’s numbers are slightly above consensus, mostly because of a lower tax rate in the upstream division. Click here for more information.
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