Truemors
is reporting from
Member
NP Rank:
NP Rank:
Oil slips to $38 on US retail sales data
Share:
by Sanjay Jha | January 14, 2009 at 07:29 pm
74 views | 2 Recommendations | 1 comment
Photos
The Prices of Crude Oil continues to decline. Oil slipped back towards $38 a barrel on Wednesday, giving up big early gains after news of worse-than-expected US retail sales figures depressed stock markets and hit the dollar.
Oil prices dipped a bit Wednesday after the government's weekly supply report and fresh recession concerns continued to chip away at demand.
Light, sweet crude for February delivery dropped 50 cents to settle at $37.28 a barrel, a three-week low. Oil endured volatile trade throughout the day, moving as low as $35.52 and as high as $39.45 in the session.
"There are so many dynamics facing the oil contract," said Rachel Ziemba, oil analyst at RGE Monitor. "Lots of attention is being paid to inventories, financial markets and macro economics, and oil is likely to continue be very volatile with the dollar swaying like it is."
The government's weekly supply report showed that demand for gasoline continued to be well below that of the same time last year, as was the demand for distillates, which are used to make heating oil, among other products.
The government report "underscores the fact that we are awash in oil right now," said James Cordier, portfolio manager of OptionSellers.com. "Not only is demand so poor because of the economic crisis," he added, but there is excess supply.
Advertisement
NowPublic on Facebook
What is NowPublic?
NowPublic lets people work together to cover news events around the world.
Crowd Power
Rum Soaked Shreddie
Calgary, Canada
erichews
Richmond, Virginia, United States
debildeluxe
Germany
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (1)
at 20:01 on January 14th, 2009
So, why is the price of gas in my area (Portland, OR) going back up? It crashed down to about $1.59 for regular $1.69 for plus a month or so ago (at the cheap places), now it's crept back up to about $1.85 for regular in the last week or two. But if oil demand / prices are still going down, shouldn't gas prices be going down too, or are stations starting just to price gouge because they can? The market is so NOT rational right now (like it ever was to begin with?).