Heating oil seesaws on Nymex

18/03/2009

Heating oil prices rose and fell during trading this morning (March 18th) after a sizable rally yesterday.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex), heating oil for April delivery had dropped to $1.2706 (91.49p) a gallon by 7:01 Eastern Time, a fall of 41 cents on its closing price.

Earlier in electronic trading, the baseline heating oil contract had touched $1.2947 a gallon, extending gains made yesterday, when it settled at $1.2747 a gallon, up 6.17 cents.

The rally tracked an uptick in crude prices on the Nymex, although the near-term contract has fallen in trading this morning in anticipation of weak demand data from the US.

The country's Energy Department will publish its weekly inventories later today.

A panel of experts polled by Bloomberg are forecasting that stockpiles rose by 1.5 million barrels over the course of last week.