Heating oil steady in New York

24/04/2009

Heating oil futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange have remained stable during electronic trading this morning (April 23rd).

By 05:04 Eastern Time, the May delivery heating oil contract had fallen four thousandths of a cent to stand at $1.3175 (94.097p) a gallon. Earlier, the heating oil contract hit a peak of $3.188 a gallon.

The steady price comes as crude oil futures trading on the same exchange make tempered movements upwards towards the $50-a-barrel mark.

A poll conducted by Bloomberg shows that 46 per cent of the 16 analysts responding believed that crude futures will fall next week on the back of persistent weak demand and other fundamentals.

"Until the market can point to even a short-term downtrend in U.S. petroleum inventories, crude oil remains at risk for intermediate-term price weakness," said Tim Evans, an energy analyst with Citi Futures Perspective in New York.

Heating oil contracts may also be at risk as a result.