Crude oil ended higher once again on Friday, 24 April, 2009. Prices rose due to the week dollar and a batch of strong earning reports and a strong rally at Wall Street.
On Friday, crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for June delivery closed at $51.55/barrel (higher by $1.93 or 3.9%) on the New York Mercantile Exchange. For the week, crude ended higher by 2.4%.
Crude ended March trading up 10.9%. It rallied 11.3% in the first quarter. For the month of February, crude prices had ended higher by 1.5%.
Oil prices had reached a high of $147 on 11 July, 2008 but have dropped almost 68.8% since then. Year to date, in 2009, crude prices are higher by 12.3%. On a yearly basis, crude prices are lower by 53%.
Earning reports dominated on Friday. American reported better-than-expected earnings. In the tech sector, Microsoft reported earnings that matched expectations. Even Ford posted a loss that wasn't quite as severe as many had expected.
EIA reported earlier during the week that crude inventories increased 3.7 million barrels (against an expected 3 million barrels) to 370.6 million barrels last week for the week ended 17 April, 2009, the highest level since September 1990. U.S. refineries operated at 83.4% of their operable capacity last week, higher than a week ago but still in a low range.
EIA had also reported that gasoline inventories rose 800,000 barrels and distillate stockpiles, which include heating oil and diesel, rose 2.7 million barrels. Market had expected a decline in both gasoline and distillate inventories. Total demand for petroleum products in the past four weeks fell 6.5% from a year ago. Among them, gasoline demand fell 0.4% while distillate consumption slumped 9.4%.
Also at the Nymex on Friday, May reformulated gasoline rose 4.6 cents, or 3.2%, to $1.4475 a gallon. May heating oil gained 5.04 cents, or 3.8%, to $1.3683 a gallon.
May natural-gas futures fell to $3.286 per million British thermal unit.
Crude prices had ended FY 2008 lower by 54%, the largest yearly loss since trading began at Nymex.