Crude stays little shy of
$80
Crude prices
ended higher on Thursday, 18 February 2010. Drop in distillate inventories as reported in the
latest weekly inventory report was the main reason for the rise in prices.
Mixed economic data and build up in crude inventories partially restricted
crude's rise.
On Thursday, crude-oil futures for light
sweet crude for March delivery
closed at $79.06/barrel (higher by $1.73 or 2.2%). During intra day trading, prices fell to a low of $76.32.
Last week, crude gained 4%. In January 2010, crude ended lower by 8.3%. On a
year to date basis, crude is lower by 0.1%.
The EIA reported today that U.S. crude stockpiles rose by 3.1 million barrels in
the week ended 12 February. The EIA also said gasoline supplies rose by 1.62
million barrels, more than the 1.5 million barrels forecast. However,
distillates fell by 2.94 million barrels on the week, far greater than the 1.6
million barrels expected.
Among economic report scheduled for the
day, The Labor Department in US reported Thursday, 18 February 2010 that the number of people filing initial claims
for state unemployment
benefits rose by 31,000 to a seasonally adjusted 473,000 last week. Market was
expecting initial claims to rise to about 447,000. The four-week average of
initial claims fell by 1,500 to 467,500, about 20,000 more than expected. State
jobless claims have risen in five of the seven weeks so far in 2010.
Separately, the Labor Department in US
also reported on Thursday, 18 February 2010 that U.S. wholesale prices rose a seasonally adjusted 1.4%
in January on double-digit increases in gasoline and home heating oil.
Among other energy products on Thursday,
gasoline for March delivery rose 6.3 cents to $2.07 a gallon, and heating oil
for the same month was up 4.4 cents, or 2.2%, at $2.05 a gallon.
Also on Thursday, the EIA said that
natural gas in storage fell by 190 billion cubic feet in the 12 February.
Market had been looking for a drawdown of between 188 billion and 192 billion
cubic feet. Natural gas for March delivery was finished down 21.6 cents, or 4%,
at $5.17 per million British thermal units in electronic trading.
Crude ended FY 2009 higher by 78%, the
highest yearly gain since 1999. It reached a high of $82 earlier in October 2009
and hit a low of $33.98 on 12 February 2009. Oil prices had reached a high of $147 on 11 July, 2008 but have dropped almost 48.8% since then. Crude
prices had ended FY 2008 lower by 54%, the largest yearly loss since trading
began at Nymex.
At the MCX, crude oil for February
delivery closed Rs 69 (1.9%) higher at Rs 3,628/barrel. Natural gas for
February delivery closed lower by Rs 7.2 (2.9%) at Rs 240.2/mmbtu.
