Crude crawls up

Prices end off their intra day session highs

Crude oil prices ended higher on Monday, 19 July 2010 at Nymex but were off their session highs. Prices rose as traders anticipated that companies will report better than expected earning report in the current quarter.



On Monday, crude oil futures for light sweet crude for August delivery closed at $76.54/barrel (higher by $0.53 or 0.7%). During intra day trading, prices rose to a high of $77.73. Last week, prices gained 1.1%.

For the month of June, oil prices shed 2.7%. Crude ended second quarter of CY 2010 lower by 9.3%. For the first quarter of this year, crude rose by 5.5%. Year to date, crude is lower by 2.3%.

Crude prices could not sustain the intraday high after a report showed home builders in July grew more pessimistic about industry conditions as a federal tax credit for home buyers expired. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo housing market index fell to 14 in July from a downwardly revised 16 in June.

The Labor Department in US reported last Friday, 16 July 2010 that U.S. consumers prices for goods and services fell slightly in June, mainly because of lower gasoline costs. The consumer-price index dropped a seasonally adjusted 0.1%, the third straight monthly decline. The closely followed core rate, seen as a better gauge of inflationary trends, rose 0.2% for the biggest gain since October 2009.

The biggest decrease in consumer prices in June occurred in energy, mostly gasoline for autos as well as electricity. Energy prices fell 2.9% for the second month in a row.

In the currency market on Monday, the dollar index, which measures the strength of the dollar against a basket of six other currencies rose by 0.2%. But the dollar slipped against the euro.

On Monday, natural gas for August delivery couldn't hold to its intraday high at $4.55, and settled down a penny at $4.51 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. 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 Rs 23 (0.63%) at Rs 3,617/barrel. Natural gas for July delivery closed at Rs 212.8, lower by Rs 0.8 (0.4%).