Oil dips below $78 in Asian trade
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
SINGAPORE, Jan 18 (Commodity Online): World oil prices dropped further in Asian trade Monday mainly on a strong dollar amid declining stocks.
Light sweet crude for February delivery was seen trading at $77.41 a barrel at 11.30 a.m Singapore time while Brent crude was at $76.71 a barrel at the same time.
The greenback was stronger, making it more expensive for holders of foreign currencies to purchase oil, which is priced in dollars. The euro fell to $1.4366 in Asian trading Monday from $1.4340 Friday.
Major stock markets in Asia such as Japan and Hong Kong were down early Monday following Friday's decline on Wall Street where rising loan losses at JPMorgan Chase & Co sparked concerns about profits at other big banks.
In other Nymex trading in February contracts, heating oil fell 1.01 cent to $2.0359 a gallon and gasoline slid 0.58 cent to $2.0396 a gallon. Natural gas futures shed 6.2 cents to $5.629.
On Friday, Benchmark crude for February delivery slid $1.39 Friday to settle at $78 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The price was down $4.75 for the week.
In London, Brent crude for February delivery fell 71 cents to $77.11 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
Analysts said the factors combined for a fifth straight day of losses for oil includes concerns about US consumer spending power and energy costs were an additional burden, shooting up 18.2 per cent last year led by a nearly 54 per cent rise gasoline costs.
Temperatures are expected to be above average across nearly all regions of the US for the next 10 days, which should slow demand for heating oil, they said.
Light sweet crude for February delivery was seen trading at $77.41 a barrel at 11.30 a.m Singapore time while Brent crude was at $76.71 a barrel at the same time.
The greenback was stronger, making it more expensive for holders of foreign currencies to purchase oil, which is priced in dollars. The euro fell to $1.4366 in Asian trading Monday from $1.4340 Friday.
Major stock markets in Asia such as Japan and Hong Kong were down early Monday following Friday's decline on Wall Street where rising loan losses at JPMorgan Chase & Co sparked concerns about profits at other big banks.
In other Nymex trading in February contracts, heating oil fell 1.01 cent to $2.0359 a gallon and gasoline slid 0.58 cent to $2.0396 a gallon. Natural gas futures shed 6.2 cents to $5.629.
On Friday, Benchmark crude for February delivery slid $1.39 Friday to settle at $78 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The price was down $4.75 for the week.
In London, Brent crude for February delivery fell 71 cents to $77.11 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
Analysts said the factors combined for a fifth straight day of losses for oil includes concerns about US consumer spending power and energy costs were an additional burden, shooting up 18.2 per cent last year led by a nearly 54 per cent rise gasoline costs.
Temperatures are expected to be above average across nearly all regions of the US for the next 10 days, which should slow demand for heating oil, they said.