Oil shaky after Thursday surge

31/07/2009

Oil price were fluctuating around the $67 (£40.50) mark this morning (July 31st) after surging $3.59 in trading yesterday.

At 05:55 Eastern Time, the September delivery contract listed on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) was trading at $66.71 a barrel, down 20 cents on yesterday's settle price.

Bloomberg reports that if the downward trend continues today, crude prices will record their first weekly drop seen since January.

Commenting on the prospects for the contract, Christopher Bellew, a senior broker at Bache Commodities, said: "The low $70s has become the ceiling for oil prices, as at this point they begin to weigh on equity markets. Clearer signs of global economic recovery are needed to break this cycle."

Heating oil prices were also weighed down by data from the Energy Information Administration published on Wednesday showing a sharp rise in crude, propane and heating oil inventories last week.

Gasoline was the only petroleum commodity to register a fall in inventories.