Crude prices ended little lower at Nymex on Thursday, 17 September, 2009. Prices went up earlier today but then dropped following dollar's gains.
On Thursday, crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for October delivery closed at $72.47/barrel (lower by $0.04 or 0.1%). During intra day trading, it rose to a high of $73.16 and also fell to a low of $70.4/barrel. Last week, crude ended higher by 1.9%.
For the month of August, 2009, crude ended higher by a marginal 0.7%. For the second quarter, crude ended higher by 40%. Crude prices had rallied 11.3% in the first quarter of 2009.
Oil prices had reached a high of $147 on 11 July, 2008 but have dropped almost 53% since then. Year to date, in 2009, crude prices are higher by 52%.
The dollar, which has served as a safe-haven asset over the past year because of its low yield, fell earlier today. But then, it reversed its course. The dollar index, which measures the strength of dollar against a basket of other currencies, rose by 0.4%.
The Labor Department in US reported on Thursday, 17 September, 2009 that The number of people filing for state unemployment benefits for the first time fell 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 545,000 last week, the lowest since mid-July, 2009. The number of people claiming benefits of any kind was 9.53 million, not seasonally adjusted.
The Commerce Department reported on Thursday, 17 September, 2009 that construction of new single-family homes and apartments accelerated in August to the strongest pace in nine months. Total housing starts rose 1.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 598,000, the highest figure since November 2008.
In the latest weekly inventory report, EIA reported yesterday a bigger-than-expected drop of 4.7 million barrels in U.S. stockpiles of crude oil in the week ended 11 September, 2009.
Also on Thursday, gasoline for October delivery 0.17 cents to $1.85 a gallon, while October heating oil for October delivery rose 1% to $1.84 a barrel
Natural gas also gave back some of the prior session's gains. The October contract fell 8% to finish at $3.46 per British thermal units. It briefly jumped 2% after the Energy Department reported a smaller-than-expected increase of U.S. gas in storage in the week ended 11 September.
Crude prices had ended FY 2008 lower by 54%, the largest yearly loss since trading began at Nymex.
At the MCX, crude oil for September delivery closed higher by Rs 18 (0.51%) at Rs 3,487/barrel. Natural gas for September delivery closed higher by Rs 1.5 (0.9%) at Rs 173.6/mmbtu.