Oil enters ten-day rally

28/07/2009

Crude oil prices rose again this morning (July 28th), setting the course for ten days of consecutive gains.

At 05:54 Eastern Time, the September delivery contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) was trading at $68.45 (£41.44) a barrel, up seven cents on yesterday's closing price.

Speaking to Reuters, Carsten Fritsch, an analyst at Commerzbank, said that macroeconomic factors had supported the rally, which is the most sustained run witnessed since the commodity hit a record $147 a barrel in July 2008.

"I think it is still external factors lifting prices today, rising stocks markets and economic optimism after the US home sales data yesterday," he explained.

A raft of new earnings reports has also helped to reassure traders that the US may be on its way out of recession.

Meanwhile, trading in heating oil remained flat this morning, with prices virtually unchanged from the settle price witnessed at the end of trading on the Nymex yesterday.