Heating oil tracks crude down

23/06/2009

Heating oil futures contracts trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) fell further this morning (June 23rd), adding to a day of heavy losses seen in petroleum commodities trading.

By 04:20 Eastern Time, the July delivery heating oil contract had slipped to $1.7199 (£1.06) a gallon, down 0.7 cents.

At the close of trading yesterday, the contract had dropped more than five cents on the gallon, extending losses seen at the end of last week.

Crude contracts also skidded on the Nymex yesterday, settling down $2.62 at $67 a barrel, with investors involved becoming sceptical about the prospects for a swift economic recovery.

"Exuberance in the crude oil market is waning. Telltales appear that a correction in crude oil is imminent," said Stephen Schork, president of the Schork Group, speaking to Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, Ken Hasegawa, a commodity derivative sales manager at Newedge in Tokyo, predicted that crude will drop below $66 a barrel today.