Crude glides up

Prices register substantial rise after strong job data

Crude prices ended higher on Friday, 05 March 2010. Prices rose as the dollar fell against the euro increasing commodities' appeal against an alternate investment. The dollar fell due to stronger than expected job data. Better than expected non-farm payroll data also pushed crude prices higher on anticipation of higher demand in coming months.

On Friday, crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for April delivery closed at $81.5/barrel (higher by $1.29 or 1.6%). Prices rose to a high of $82.12 during intra day trading. Prices gained 2% for the week.

Crude prices rose 9.3% in February as supply-and-demand issues began to take hold in a market for months dominated by moves in the dollar. Prices have ranged between $69 and $84 a barrel since October.

In the currency market on Friday, the dollar gained ground initially but then slipped. The dollar index, which weighs the strength of the dollar against a basket of six other currencies initially went up by 0.4% but failed to sustain its gain and ended fractionally lower.

Among key economic data, the Labor Department in US reported on Friday that U.S. nonfarm payrolls declined for the 25th time in the past 26 months, falling by 36,000 in February to a seasonally adjusted 129.5 million. The nation's jobless rate was steady at 9.7%. Job losses in February were concentrated in construction, schools, transportation, insurance, and publishing sectors.

Earlier during the week, the EIA reported that crude-oil stockpiles rose 4.1 million barrels last week, topping the 1.1 million barrels expected by market. The report also showed that gasoline stockpiles rose 700,000 barrels while distillate inventories fell 900,000 barrels. Refineries operated at 81.9% of capacity.

Also on Friday, natural gas for April delivery added 1.8 cents, or 0.4%, to $4.593 per million British thermal units

Crude ended FY 2009 higher by 78%, the highest yearly gain since 1999. It reached a high of $82 earlier in October 2009 and hit a low of $33.98 on 12 February 2009. Oil prices had reached a high of $147 on 11 July, 2008 but have dropped almost 45% since then. Crude prices had ended FY 2008 lower by 54%, the largest yearly loss since trading began at Nymex.