Oil tops $51 on US inventories report
Oil prices climb as crude inventories come in below analyst estimates
Mark Williams, AP Energy Writer
Wednesday April 8, 2009, 12:38 pm EDT
Benchmark crude for May delivery rose $2.15 to $51.30 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Some analysts suggested the rally came from traders covering bets that the price of oil would fall.
For the week ended Friday crude supplies increased by 1.7 million barrels, or 0.5 percent, to 361.1 million barrels, 15.2 percent above year-ago levels, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report. Analysts had expected a boost of 2.3 million barrels, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.
"We're swimming in this stuff," oil analyst and trader Stephen Schork said after the report was released, noting that crude levels already were at 16-year highs before the release of the report.
Gasoline inventories rose by 600,000 barrels, or 0.3 percent, to 217.4 million barrels, 1.4 percent below year-ago levels. Analysts expected stockpiles of the motor fuel to fall by 1.5 million barrels.
At the same time, U.S. refineries ran at 81.8 percent of total capacity on average, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week. Analysts expected capacity to increase 0.25 percentage point to 81.95 percent...
Prices were lower before the government data came out. Addision Armstrong of Tradition Energy said he believes the rally was a result of traders covering positions in which they were betting that oil would fall.
But after reaching $52.64 Thursday, oil has fallen every day until Wednesday. Jim Ritmassageplanetusch of Ritmassageplanetusch and Associates said oil prices have been following the stock market lower the past few days.
"Oil also has been hurt by a strengthening dollar, he said. Because crude is bought and sold in dollars, a barrel of crude becomes cheaper if the dollar moves higher."
"It's a combination of a strong dollar and a weakening stock market. That's a pretty bearish combo for the energy complex," he said.
Other government data released Wednesday showed wholesalers cut their inventories in February by the steepest amount in more than 17 years as companies struggled to reduce stockpiles amid slowing sales.... "
Just one of the many acrticles & reports [redacted here] on the exchange markets I read daily! Wrong guy to talk to about "the facts" unless you have some.
The question is: what's the trend? The dollar will fall eventually as a result of there being so many dollars in circulation but that hasn't happened yet.
The Korean currency has continued its fall against the dollar for the last few months.
As far as other places that have the 160 price-tag?.. they are not advertising their prices yet.. BTW neither is V.C. right now.