Crude tumbles again

Prices slip for second straight day

Oil prices fell for second straight day on Monday, 06 April, 2009. Prices continued to fall as last week's job loss data once again raised concerns about the overall health of the US economy questioning the demand for energy in the coming months.

On Monday, crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for May delivery closed at $51.05/barrel (lower by $1.46 or 2.8%) on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Last week, crude ended higher by 0.3%.

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 65% since then. Year to date, in 2009, crude prices are higher by 20%. On a yearly basis, crude prices are lower by 50%.

On last Friday, the Labor Department reported that the total number of jobs lost since the recession began climbed to 5.1 million. As per the report, U.S. nonfarm payrolls fell by 663,000 in March, while the unemployment rate jumped to a 26-year high 8.5% from 8.1%, as expected.

In the currency market on Monday, the dollar pared early losses and gained considerably against its counterparts. The dollar index, which calculates the strength of dollar against a basket of six major currencies rose almost 1%.

Also at the Nymex on Monday, May reformulated gasoline fell 1.1% to $1.4755 a gallon and May heating oil lost 1.9% to $1.4191 a gallon.

May natural-gas futures slid 0.5% to $3.801 per million British thermal units.

Crude prices had ended FY 2008 lower by 54%, the largest yearly loss since trading began at Nymex.

At the MCX, crude oil for March delivery closed at Rs 2,522/barrel, lower by Rs 121 (4.6%) against previous day's close. Natural gas for April delivery closed at Rs 186.8/mmbtu, lower by Rs 5.1/mmbtu (2.6%).