Oil edges back towards $50

24/04/2009

Near-term crude futures have continued to edge towards $50 (£34) a barrel during electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange this morning (April 23rd).

The upward movement comes after moderate gains made yesterday, when the June delivery contract closed at $49.62, up 77 cents.

Crude trading was subdued earlier this week after plunging eight percent on Monday as investors awaited data from the US Energy Information Administration measuring national inventories of crude, heating oil, DERV and other petroleum products.

Despite the uptick yesterday and today, the commodity is set for its third weekly decline, with Gareth Lewis-Davies, an oil market analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort, telling Bloomberg: "Prices are likely to trade around current levels until hard evidence emerges that the various stimulus packages are improving oil demand."

In turn, this may suppress any potential rise in heating oil futures in the coming weeks.