Oil falls again on flu fears

28/04/2009

Early trading in New York has resulted in further falls in crude futures this morning (April 28th) as concerns grow that the outbreak of swine flu will put the dampers on economic recovery.

By 05:16 Eastern Time, the June delivery crude contract trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange had fallen $1.48 (£1.01) to trade at $48.66 a barrel.

At the close of trading yesterday, the commodity had fallen $1.41 after recovering partially from larger losses in morning trade.

Heating oil, gasoline and other petroleum products were also impacted by developments in the spread of swine flu.

"Fear is dominating the cyclical commodity markets today, as investors are concerned that the spreading of swine flu in Mexico may severely damp hopes of an economic recovery," said analysts led by Eugen Weinberg at Commerzbank, in a note to clients.

The World Health Organisation has raised the pandemic alert level to 4.