Heating oil bootstrapped by crude, stocks

14/07/2009

Heating oil prices rose on the New York Mercantile Exchange this morning (July 14th), reacting to rallies on Asian stock exchanges and positive movements in crude contracts also trading on the bourse.

At 05:41 Eastern Time, the August delivery heating oil contract was trading at $1.5183 (93p) a gallon, up 1.45 cents on yesterday's settle price.

By the close of trading yesterday, the commodity had lost more than two cents as investors eyed weak demand in a persistently gloomy economic environment.

However, crude and heating oil contracts were buoyed this morning by the expectation that major corporations in the US will post positive financial results for the second quarter of this year.

"If the banks improve, then the economy as a whole will as well, including consumption and need for oil," said Mike Sander, investment adviser at Sander Capital Advisors in Seattle, in an investors' note seen by the Wall Street Journal.