Crude ends marginally lower

Jobless data and strong dollar take crude lower

Crude prices ended marginally lower on Thursday, 06 August, 2009. Prices fell as the dollar strengthened and also there was anticipation about weak hurricane season in the forthcoming months.

On Thursday, crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for September delivery closed at $71.94/barrel (lower by $0.03 or 0.1%). During intra day trading, it fell to a low of $70.18. Last week, crude ended higher by 2.1%.

For the month of July, 2009, crude ended lower by a marginal 0.6%. 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 44% since then. Year to date, in 2009, crude prices are higher by 49%.

In the currency market on Thursday, the dollar index, a six-currency gauge of the greenback's value, rose by almost 0.5%.

The Labor Department reported today those first-time claims for state unemployment benefits declined by 38,000 to 550,000 last week. The four-week average of new jobless claims dropped to 555,250, the lowest level since January.

EIA reported yesterday that crude supplies increased 1.7 million barrels to 349.5 million barrels in the week ended 31 July, 2009. Market was expecting a rise of 1.5 million barrels. The Energy Department also said that gasoline stocks fell by 200,000 barrels and distillate inventories dropped by 1.1 million barrels last week.

Also at the Nymex on Thursday, September reformulated gasoline rose slightly to $2.0607 a gallon, and September heating oil slid 2.02 cents, or 1%, to $1.9367 a gallon.

September natural gas futures tumbled 29.9 cents, or 7.4%, to end at $3.743 per million British thermal units. EIA reported today that U.S. natural-gas inventories rose 66 billion cubic feet in the week ended 31 July, 2009.

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

At the MCX, crude oil for August delivery closed higher by 34 (0.99%) at Rs 3,438/barrel. Natural gas for August delivery closed at Rs 182.7/mmbtu, lower by Rs 10.6/mmbtu (5.5%).