Wednesday, Sep 19, 2012
By Jenny Gross
LONDON--Crude oil futures fell in London trading as traders continued to take profits and awaited data from the U.S. Department of Energy on weekly crude oil inventories.
At 1020 GMT, the November Brent contract on London's ICE futures exchange was down 54 cents, or 0.5%, at $111.47 a barrel. The front-month contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange was trading down 22 cents, or 0.2%, at $95.07 a barrel.
"It's a bit risk-off at the moment," said Thina Saltvedt, a senior oil-market analyst at Nordea Bank Norge. "There aren't many figures out this week, so it seems like a bit of profit taking after the increase last week."
She added that there's also still looming fears that the U.S. may sell oil from its inventories of crude, adding supply to the market and bringing down the oil price. Also a report by the Financial Times that Saudi Arabia is offering its main customers in the U.S., Europe and Asia extra oil supplies to damp prices may be contributing to the bearish mood in oil markets, she said.
Meanwhile, oil investors largely shrugged off an announcement by the Bank of Japan that it will expand its asset-purchase program to boost Japan's economy. Japan is the third largest importer of oil.
Market participants will look to weekly oil inventory data from the U.S. Department of Energy later Wednesday for cues on the supply and demand balance in the U.S.. Analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires expect a rise of 500,000 barrels for the week ended Sept. 14.
At 1021 GMT, the ICE's gasoil contract for November delivery was trading $11.00 lower, or 1.1%, at $973.75 per metric ton. Nymex gasoline for October delivery was up 86 points, or 0.3%, at $2.9076 per gallon.
-Write to Jenny Gross at jenny.gross@dowjones.com; Twitter: @jgginlondon
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 19, 2012 06:29 ET (10:29 GMT)
