Crude trades almost unchanged

Prices drop marginally as world witnesses trade dispute between China and US

Crude prices ended marginally lower at Nymex on Monday, 14 September, 2009. Prices ended lower due to weak demand concerns in the international front. Relatively strong dollar also led to slipping crude price.

On Monday, crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for October delivery closed at $68.86/barrel (lower by $0.43 or 0.7%). 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 55% since then. Year to date, in 2009, crude prices are higher by 46.7%.

In the currency market on Monday, the dollar index, which measures the strength of dollar against a basket of other currencies, rose by 0.4%.

As per latest reports, over the weekend, Washington imposed stiff tariffs on Chinese-made tires, and China said it would launch an antidumping investigation into U.S. sales of chicken and auto products. Thus trade agreements between US and China started taking a sour turn.

Natural gas for October delivery jumped 11.5% to end at $3.35 per million British thermal units on Nymex. Natural-gas futures were very volatile last week

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 lower by Rs 5 (0.15%) at Rs 3,356/barrel. Natural gas for September delivery closed higher by Rs 13 (8.9%) at Rs 159.1/mmbtu.