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8-MAY-2008: A Shell customer holds his wallet as he pumps gas at a
Shell gas station in Menlo Park, Calif,. Wednesday, May 7, 2008. Oil
futures extended their seemingly relentless advance Wednesday, rising
to a new record near $124 a barrel as investors captivated by the
market's upward momentum looked past the government's report of an
increase in crude and gasoline supplies. At the pump, gas prices rose
for the first time since last week. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma) [Photo
copyright 2008 by AP]
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BANGKOK, Thailand - Oil prices held steady Thursday in Asia after jumping to a record near $124 a barrel as investors captivated by the market's upward momentum seemed to ignore figures showing an increase in U.S. crude and gasoline supplies.HOT TRAVEL DEALS Analysts attributed oil's rise to continued buying from the surge that pushed prices past $120 for the first time earlier this week. The fact that prices didn't decline sharply after the weekly U.S. inventory report signaled to some investors that the market was ripe for another rally. "The bulls are in control and there's a lot of momentum driving the oil price up", said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore. "Participants now tend to focus on only the bullish elements of the news out there." By midafternoon in Singapore, light, sweet crude for June delivery fell 28 cents to $122.25 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.69 on Wednesday to a record finish of $123.53 a barrel. It later jumped to a trading record of $123.93 a barrel in the electronic session. Oil prices at first waffled on Wednesday as traders were torn between relief that crude and gasoline supplies are rising and worries about rising demand and falling distillate stockpiles. "Another example of ... zeroing in on the bullish news is this inventory report out of the U.S.", Shum said. The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in a weekly report that inventories of distillate fuels, which include diesel and heating oil, fell unexpectedly while gasoline demand rose slightly last week. Traders chose to focus on those numbers and shrug off crude inventories, which rose much more than analysts predicted, and gasoline supplies, which increased when expected to decline. Some evidence that investors were buying simply to keep up with the market's momentum came from the fact that a stronger dollar has had little or no impact on trading. "The trading mantra that we observed the last few months between the movement of the U.S. dollar and oil price movements appears not to hold water the last few days", Shum said. The dollar's protracted decline against the euro and other foreign currencies since the middle of last year has played a major role in oil's rise by attracting investors looking for a hedge against inflation. When the dollar reverses course and strengthens, the effect usually reverses, sending oil prices lower - but not recently, as Shum noted. In currency trading Thursday in Asia, the dollar has continued to climb against the euro, which at one point fell to $1.5285, its lowest level since March 11. In other Nymex trading, June heating oil futures fell 0.32 cent to $3.4441 a gallon (3.8 liters) while gasoline futures rose 0.37 cent to $3.1219 a gallon. Natural gas futures rose 5 cents to $11.377 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, June Brent crude futures fell 18 cents to $122.14 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
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8-MAY-2008: A Shell customer holds his wallet as he pumps gas at a
Shell gas station in Menlo Park, Calif,. Wednesday, May 7, 2008. Oil
futures extended their seemingly relentless advance Wednesday, rising
to a new record near $124 a barrel as investors captivated by the
market's upward momentum looked past the government's report of an
increase in crude and gasoline supplies. At the pump, gas prices rose
for the first time since last week. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma) [Photo
copyright 2008 by AP]
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