Heating oil steady on Nymex

24/08/2009

Heating oil prices were little changed during electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) this morning (August 24th), making fractional upward movements after crude oil futures briefly breached the $75 (£45) barrier.

Although crude futures retreated on the ten-month high, expectations that improving macroeconomic prospects would promote a recovery in demand continued to provide support for petroleum commodities on trading floors.

Edward Meir, an analyst at MF Global, told Reuters: "We could now easily move toward the $80 mark if the growing enthusiasm about the budding economic recovery continues to dominate sentiment."

The rally was also supported by the publication of strong corporate earnings figures from Sinopec, the Chinese national energy giant and the world's largest oil refiner, which led an upswing on equities exchanges in Asia this morning.

Reuters data also suggested that demand for crude in China rose 3.5 per cent year-on-year in July, while data to be published by the Energy Information Administration later this week is also expected to show a second consecutive week of growth in demand for crude, heating oil, propane and gasoline in the US.