Oil up again after volatile mid-week trade

18/06/2009

Crude prices were up on the New York Mercantile Exchange this morning (June 18th), continuing to move upwards after a day of turbulent trading yesterday.

By 05:27 Eastern Time, the July delivery crude contract was trading at $71.53 (£44) a barrel, up 50 cents from yesterday's settle price, which in turn finished the day up 56 cents on the barrel.

After a weak start to the day, the contract moved upwards following data from the Energy Information Administration showing that crude stocks shrank by a bigger than expected margin last week, indicating that demand may be on the mend.

Meanwhile, heating oil and other distillate stocks rose by around 300,000 barrels, although ShareCast reports that investors were expecting an increase of around 900,000 barrels.

As a result, heating oil prices also rose during trading yesterday despite a similarly weak start to the day.

Over the course of the day, heating oil prices fluctuated by more than six cents on the gallon.