Heating oil continues steady climb

30/04/2009

Heating oil contracts trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) continued to rise this morning (April 29th), extending gains made yesterday on the back of positive demand data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

The group's weekly report showed that while stockpiles of crude, heating oil and propane were all up again last week, gasoline inventories dropped significantly, indicating that the economy may be getting moving again.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reports that the data was given a boost by other signs that consumer spending is beginning to improve. Spurred on by these sentiments, investors boosted the Dow Jones industrial average 2.1 per cent.

"Investors are looking ahead and betting that the worst economic declines are over. In the past few weeks, investors have pretty much ignored any bad news," said Shum, energy analyst with consultancy Purvin & Gertz in Singapore.

Heating oil prices have continued to rise on this optimism, with the Nymex's May delivery contract reaching $1.3350 (89.58p) a gallon by 03:50 Eastern Time, up 0.59 cents.