Friday, Aug 21, 2009
By Angela Henshall
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
LONDON (Dow Jones)--Crude oil futures hit a fresh high for 2009 in London Friday at $73.88 a barrel amid volatile trading in low volumes, but lacked enough momentum to break firm resistance at $74 a barrel.
Olivier Jakob analyst at Petromatrix pointed to crude gleaning further support to test the highs from "better economic data from the euro zone pressuring the US dollar, equities holding, strong spread into the WTI expiry and supportive technical charts"
At 1054 GMT, the front-month October Brent contract on London's ICE futures exchange was up 79 cents at $74.12 a barrel.
The front-month October contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange, was trading 77 cents higher at $73.68 a barrel.
The ICE's gasoil contract for October delivery was up down 75 cents at $609 a metric ton, while Nymex gasoline for September delivery was up 141 points at 199.63 cents a gallon.
A large number of the downside corrections seen in the oil complex since the rally started in March have been relatively short-lived and shallow. There have been only two significant downside corrections, one from mid-March to mid-April and the other from early June to mid-June, and in the time between 10 mini-corrections that have lasted for less than a week each time. After trading yesterday it seems the current correction could probably be placed in the mini category.
Commerzbank analysts attribute oil's swift climb from $30 a barrel to over $70 a barrel over the last seven months to recovery in investment from financial investors. They say if financial investors influence is reduced by US regulatory authority the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, then the oil price will fall. "We expect some of these measures to be decided very soon, particularly bearing in mind that the political pressure and the desire to combat excessive speculation in the commodities markets, particularly energy markets, is growing strongly not just in the USA but also in government circles in Europe."
-By Angela Henshall, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 (0)20 7842 9285; angela.henshall@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 21, 2009 07:03 ET (11:03 GMT)
