Crude prices give up earlier gains
Crude prices were quite volatile at Nymex today, Monday, 10 December, 2007. But prices ultimately gave up earlier gains and ended lower today. Prices rose today earlier in the day when dollar weakened against rivals but then gave up all its gains and closed lower for the day on anticipation of another interest rate cut.
For the day ending Monday, 10 December, 2007, crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for January delivery closed at $87.86/barrel (lower by $0.42/barrel or 0.5%) on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices reached a high of $89.75/barrel earlier in the day. Prices reached a high of $99.2 on 21 November. Prices are up 42% from a year ago.
In the currency market today, the dollar index, which tracks the performance of the dollar against a basket of other major currencies, dropped 0.3% to 76.10. The Federal Reserve is expected to cut interest rates by a quarter-percentage point on Tuesday for a third straight meeting.
Brent crude oil for January settlement fell $0.60 (0.7%) to $88.04 on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange.
Natural gas, heating oil and gasoline – all drop
Natural gas in New York declined on an outlook for higher-than-normal temperatures and lower demand. Gas for January delivery fell 12.3 cents (1.7%) to settle at $7.032 per million British thermal units.
Against this backdrop, January reformulated gasoline fell 1.89 cents to end at $2.2501 a gallon and January heating oil dropped 2.73 cents to $2.4774 a gallon.
Attacks on oil facilities in Middle East and tight supplies from OPEC have bolstered crude prices this year. As per the U.S. Energy Information Administration, tight global energy supplies are expected to keep energy prices high through 2008.
At the MCX, crude oil for December delivery closed lower at Rs 3456/barrel, lower by Rs 18 (0.5%) against previous day’s close. Natural gas closed at Rs 279/mmtbu as against previous close of Rs 282.9/mmtbu, higher by Rs 3.9/ mmtbu.