Crude moves up

Crude ends higher for third straight day

Crude oil prices ended higher for third straight day on Friday, 09 July 2010 at Nymex. Prices rose in tandem with US equities and as US wholesale inventories data showed rise in line with expectations.



On Friday, crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for August delivery closed at $76.09/barrel (higher by $0.65 or 0.8%). For the week, prices gained 5.5%. This was highest weekly gain for crude in almost one and half months.

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 6.5%.

In the currency market on Friday, the dollar index, which weighs the strength of the dollar against a basket of six other currencies, rose by 0.1%.

US data on Friday showed that wholesale inventories rose in May as warehouses were restocked with durable goods. Wholesale inventories dropped a little, but they were up by almost 15% from May 2009.

During the week, in the weekly inventory report on oil, energy department reported a decline of 5 million barrels in the nation's crude-oil inventories last week. The market had expected the draw. The EIA also reported an increase of 1.3 million barrels for gasoline stockpiles and an increase of 300,000 for distillates stocks.

On Friday, reformulated gasoline for August delivery added 2 cents, or 0.9%, to settle at $2.07 a gallon. For the week, gasoline gained 4.5%.

Also on Friday, natural-gas futures for August delivery climbed by less than a penny to $4.40 per million British thermal units. For the week, natural gas lost 6.8%. Earlier on Thursday, the EIA showed a larger-than-expected increase in natural-gas stockpiles. The EIA reported an increase by 78 billion cubic feet for the week ended 2 July, while market had expected an increase of 70 to 74 billion cubic feet.

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.