Crude registers marginal drop

Prices erase earlier gains as dollar firms up

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.