Traders lock-in profits following previous increases

05/11/2009

Oil prices fell towards $79 per barrel this Thursday (November 5th), as traders view a strengthening dollar and a fall in equities markets as a chance to lock-in profits.

A steep drop in crude stockpiles saw prices increase by one per cent the previous day, reports Reuters.

The newswire reports that US crude oil for December delivery fell 71 cents to leave trading prices at $79.69 per barrel by 06:38 GMT in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Tony Nunan, risk manager at Tokyo-based Mitsubishi, said: "Today the market is down a little bit as we get a bit of a correction, after two days of fairly big gains."

Data from the Energy Information Administration saw crude oil prices increase to more than $81 per barrel on Wednesday.

A four million drop in inventories went against analysts' expectations for an increase.

Earlier this week Illinois-based Ritterbusch and Associates said that they expected oil prices to move towards $75 in the coming days.