Related News
Oil near US$90 per barrel
Source: Agencies |
March 5, 2013, Tuesday
|
Online Edition
Online Edition
OIL dropped below US$90 a barrel for the first time this year yesterday.
Benchmark oil for April delivery fell 56 cents to finish at US$90.12 a barrel in trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier, the price fell as low as US$89.33 a barrel.
The price of oil declined as markets continued to digest the introduction in the US of automatic government spending cuts, which could hurt the world's leading economy.
Spending cuts of roughly US$85 billion automatically kicked in on Friday after President Barack Obama and Congress failed to meet a deadline for striking a deal to avert or soften the reductions. Negotiations on Sunday ended in a bitter impasse, and what happens next is anyone's guess.
The International Monetary Fund has predicted that the spending cuts could reduce US growth by some 0.5 percentage point in 2013.
Traders also said that a report showing weakness in China's service sector contributed to the drop in oil.
While a month ago oil was close to exceeding US$100 a barrel, analysts said prices could continue to slide.
A report from JBC Energy in Vienna noted that refineries are undergoing a higher than normal rate of maintenance. That reduces demand for oil, hurting the price. And Jim Ritterbusch of Ritterbusch and Associates in Illinois says recent strength in the dollar is a major reason that oil is down 7 percent a little more than 2 weeks.
The increase in the dollar makes crude more expensive and a less attractive investment for traders using other currencies. While the euro was worth over US$1.36 on Feb. 4, on yesterday it was trading just under US$1.30.
Brent crude, used to price many kinds of oil imported by US refineries, fell 31 cents to US$110.09 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.
In other energy futures trading on the Nymex:
- Wholesale gasoline fell 3 cents to US$3.10 a gallon.
- Heating oil slipped 1 cent to US$2.92 a gallon.
- Natural gas gained 7 cents to US$3.53 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Benchmark oil for April delivery fell 56 cents to finish at US$90.12 a barrel in trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier, the price fell as low as US$89.33 a barrel.
The price of oil declined as markets continued to digest the introduction in the US of automatic government spending cuts, which could hurt the world's leading economy.
Spending cuts of roughly US$85 billion automatically kicked in on Friday after President Barack Obama and Congress failed to meet a deadline for striking a deal to avert or soften the reductions. Negotiations on Sunday ended in a bitter impasse, and what happens next is anyone's guess.
The International Monetary Fund has predicted that the spending cuts could reduce US growth by some 0.5 percentage point in 2013.
Traders also said that a report showing weakness in China's service sector contributed to the drop in oil.
While a month ago oil was close to exceeding US$100 a barrel, analysts said prices could continue to slide.
A report from JBC Energy in Vienna noted that refineries are undergoing a higher than normal rate of maintenance. That reduces demand for oil, hurting the price. And Jim Ritterbusch of Ritterbusch and Associates in Illinois says recent strength in the dollar is a major reason that oil is down 7 percent a little more than 2 weeks.
The increase in the dollar makes crude more expensive and a less attractive investment for traders using other currencies. While the euro was worth over US$1.36 on Feb. 4, on yesterday it was trading just under US$1.30.
Brent crude, used to price many kinds of oil imported by US refineries, fell 31 cents to US$110.09 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.
In other energy futures trading on the Nymex:
- Wholesale gasoline fell 3 cents to US$3.10 a gallon.
- Heating oil slipped 1 cent to US$2.92 a gallon.
- Natural gas gained 7 cents to US$3.53 per 1,000 cubic feet.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
