Heating oil falls continue

20/04/2009

The cost of both heating oil and crude oil on the trading floor has continued to fall in today's trading.

Crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange has continued its slide away from $50 per barrel throughout the day and had fallen to $46.22 by 10:38 Eastern Time (15:38 BST) today (April 20th).

Heating oil futures, meanwhile, fell by over 6.5 per cent to stand at 132.84 cents per gallon at the same time.

Growing oil stockpiles across the US have added to traders' concerns that demand is continuing to weaken and have affected the cost per barrel.

"The uncertain demand outlook is going to continue to dominate the outlook for crude," analyst at Commodity Warrants Australia Toby Hassall told the Bloomberg news agency.

A report on demand for high-priced white goods in the US is to be published later in the week, but forecasts of its findings are already beginning to have an adverse effect on prices.