Crude ends lower

Prices drop as oil market gets no clue from bank stress results

Crude oil prices ended lower on Friday, 23 July 2010 at Nymex. Prices dropped despite quite a few better than expected earning reports. Steady dollar and mixed results from European bank stress forum provided no clear direction to the oil prices.



On Friday, crude oil futures for light sweet crude for September delivery closed at $78.64/barrel (lower by $0.67 or 0.8%). For the week, crude prices ended higher by 1.3%.

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 higher by 0.1%.

Among the major earning reports expected for the day on Friday, better-than-expected bottom lines came from Dow components American Express, McDonalds, Microsoft and Verizon. Among the more widely held names to report, Amazon.com was the only one that came short of the consensus estimate.

In the much awaited bank stress tests, most European banks passed the tests. But market participants were generally unfazed by the midday announcement. That was largely because the stringency of the tests was unclear and the tests didn't really do anything to address concerns about the pace of the economic recovery.

In the currency market on Friday, the dollar index, which measures the strength of the dollar against a basket of six other currencies, remained steady.

Among other energy products on Friday, reformulated gasoline for August delivery lost 3 cents, or 1.4%, to $2.11 a gallon.

Also, on Friday, natural gas for August delivery, the thinly traded front-month contract, retreated 7 cents, or 1.5%, to $4.56 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.