Heating oil calm after Thursday surge

24/07/2009

Heating oil prices were up fractionally during trading this morning (July 24th), steadying after a surge witnessed yesterday on the back of rising gasoline prices and stocks.

At the close of trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange yesterday, the August delivery had risen to $1.758 (£1.06), up 5.3 cents on the gallon. Crude and gasoline prices also made strong gains on the bourse, mimicking gains on key equity exchanges.

Speaking to Bloomberg, Olivier Jakob, managing director of consultants Petromatrix in Zug, Switzerland, said that stocks have been instrumental in lifting petrol commodities, with crude set for its second weekly rise.

"If the global destruction of the economy has indeed bottomed then so should the oil markets. The green shoots in macro inputs have not been invalidated by earnings reports," he said.

Meanwhile, Victor Shum, a senior analyst at Purvin & Gertz in Singapore, said that there is an expectation that there will be more positive earnings reports from major US corporations in the coming weeks.