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Oil Prices Fall Near $67 Per Barrel

By MARK WILLIAMS
,
AP
posted: 121 DAYS 22 HOURS AGO
filed under: Crude Oil Prices
Text SizeAAA
COLUMBUS, Ohio -A two-week rally in oil markets sputtered Tuesday and crude prices fell along with the stock market.
Prices first dipped in electronic trading before the market opened and then dropped sharply when new data suggested consumers are less confident than ever about their jobs and the economy as a whole.
Economic anxiety has kept people closer to home this year and the most energy-intense industries have cut back on production.
Benchmark crude for September delivery fell $1.15 to settle at $67.23 a barrel in trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
What appears to be an end to an extended rally comes one day ahead of a U.S. government report detailing how much crude is in storage.
If the latest economic data can be taken as a barometer, it suggests that the appetite for energy has not rebounded as quickly as some had hoped.
Even before the sell-off Tuesday, most energy experts expected crude in storage to rise because demand remains weak.
A barrel of oil was about $9 cheaper just two weeks ago, before better-than-expected corporate earnings suggested to some that the economy is on the mend. The Dow Jones industrial average has jumped 11 percent in about the same time.
But while many energy experts and oil traders say that there is a clear correlation between energy and equities markets, they have questioned the whether oil prices should be this high.
"Theoretically, the oil market shouldn't be following the equity markets higher, but it has," said Jim Ritterbusch of Ritterbusch and Associates.
Executives at major energy companies continue to say that a rebound in demand is a long way off.
On Tuesday, the first major international oil company reported results from the second quarter.
BP PLC, Europe's second largest oil company, said profits fell 53 percent compared with a year earlier, when crude spiked to record heights.
CEO Tony Hayward said he expected any recovery to be "long and drawn out."
Valero Energy Corp., the largest U.S. independent refiner, reported a loss $254 million Tuesday, just a year removed from profits of $734 million. And Valero said it could continue to lose money for the rest of the year if a weak economy persists.
The second quarter us usually very strong for companies like Valero, which refines oil into jet fuel and gasoline, because it is usually the three months when Americans travel most.
But there is much less being shipped in 18 wheelers and Americans are driving far less than they did in past years, even though gasoline is a comparative bargain.
Yet prices remain volatile and Tuesday marked the opening of hearings in Washington seeking to determine the effects of speculators on the energy markets.
The head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which monitors commodities markets, blamed "excessive" speculation for wild swings in the energy prices, though he said some speculation is necessary for the market to function.
Gary Gensler, chairman of the CFTC, said it is the duty of the commission to prevent a few major players from holding too much sway over energy prices.
In other Nymex trading, gasoline for August delivery fell 2.41 cents to settle at $1.9106 a gallon and heating oil lost 2.99 cents to settle at $1.7647. Natural gas for August delivery fell 6.9 cents to settle at $3.535 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, Brent crude prices fell 93 cents to settle at $69.88 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2009-07-28 16:18:43
COMMENTS ( 121 )
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Smseverett
8:49AM Jul 28 2009 
Big companies all are trimming all excess fat in order to show profit or smaller losses. No growth or positive market trends to back up higher use of oil. Eventually the market for oil will implode and hopefully the greed mongers will fall without taking us all with them.
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GSPORTS97
8:37AM Jul 28 2009 
MAKE IT A CRIMINAL ACT OF 10 YEARS FOR SPECULATING IN OIL, GAS AND FOOD. HEDGE FUNDS CAN KISS MY BUTT. THEN TAKE THE OIL FIELDS AWAY FROM THE OIL COMPANIES AS ONE THING ALL YOU IDIOTS FORGET. THE OIL AND GAS IS THE PROPERTY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE NOT THE GREEDY SLIMLY SUCKERS WHO THINK THEY OWN IT.
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JUDY MILLS 777
8:24AM Jul 28 2009 
BIG OIL wants OIL to rise, they jus PAY the REBELS to blow another pipe line up, BASTARDS!
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RLMKnowlton
5:35AM Jul 28 2009 
JDMNVA...........................I agree. The housing collapse coming was something the dems didn't want to hear. Barney Frank said "There's nothing wrong with Fannie and Freddie". Youtube will show the non believers that. Bush could have done something about it, and he was too busy chasing wmd's in Iraq which werent found.....at that time. But, Saddam did use chemical agents in the Iran/Iraq war in the 1980's to exterminate hundreds of thousands of people. So, he did at one time have these things, which the dems of course downplay and conveniently forget. When Bush was pitching his plan to go into Iraq on television, that was the advertisement needed by Saddam to move whatever he had, if any. If the police were on tv for months talking about raiding a crack house, do you think the crack is going to be there when they come in? Probably not, same with whatever, if anything, Saddam had. But let's not ignore the fact that he did have them and did use them to kill loads of people in that war. After 9/11, this country was united for a short while. Sad thing is that it takes a catastrophe to get that done. I felt safe with Bush in office. This clown in there now is just as clueless as can be, and he's opening up this country to be hit hard. I don't feel safe at all under Obama. They do nothing but pass the buck, place blame, and undermine our military and intelligence communities. I guess when it happens, if it happens, under Obama's watch, it will still be Bush' fault? I think not.
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Tahitifazzboat
8:30AM Jul 27 2009 
"Oil is completely mirroring equity markets," said Jonathan Kornafel, Asia director for market maker Hudson Capital Energy in Singapore. "There's less risk aversion so more investment in commodities."...... Not supply and demand in the normal realistic way we know it, but unsustainable....padded numbers...and a boatload of money and investors on the side.... just waiting to add some of that money to the legalized gambling pulpit of Wall St. Article after ariticle of risky bets..? Isnt that one of the reasons that got us into this mess? Nothing about real growth but this is the norm.... *Better then Expected* is equal to growth. Better then expected is the norm now just like Oil Futures rise on *Sentiment*. Better then expected is like buying a burger that had been dropped on the ground and kicked... then saying *Oh man* only got a lil dirt in it so its good*. So supply and demand is based *Sentiment* and the Dows rising not because were in growth mode but that the Companies reporting 2Q are maken cost cutting provisions and using that to report false positives. And the momment any one of these ******** Wall St..Oil futures now rise on that *Sentiment*. Gas went up from $2.09 thursday to $2.29 Monday. So in this ariticle they*Book there Profits*.? Where do you think all these gains and all these profits not only with Oil and Gas but from the Banks reporting huge Profits... where do you think there coming from? You can blame Bush, Clinton, Regan, and so on but this didnt happen overnite. Nafta and Phil Gram and Barney Frank are a pig part of the whole picture and there likes. You outsource jobs for years...just where do ********** the job and tax base from 10 or 20 years of outsoucing? You dont. We (our elected officials Dems and Reps) sold out this counrty years ago and we still blame the person behind the wheel..ie, the President +s. Its our Millionaire Senators Dems and Reps and the system that allowed them to do it and the icing on the cake is this is no longer a Democracy but a boat sinking with Stolen Taxpayer Dollars... Borrowed and inflated Wall St numbers...Traders and Speculators selling Oil futures 10 yrs from now...Banks making money and profiting on the backs of the very people that enabled them to profit in the first place. You can play the blame game ******* not anyone person. Its the combination of both parties and special interests that enabled our country to be outsourced and bought $ and sold to the highest bidders. Nothing will be like it was ever. You cant fix 10 to 20 yrs of abuse of our country and its people. All we can hope for is some of the best minds... the small businesses...and with some help from the man upstairs that we can rebuild from the ground up. Newsweek reports *The Resession is over* News reports were in recovery mode. And the media sells it to us hoping we'll go spend more money that we dont have. Start from the ground up. Let the Big banks fend for themselves. Invest in the Small Business men and woman. Give back the rest of the tarp so Barney ass Frank cant steal anything else. Steady Gas prices and Oil prices and you'll see the magic of American people do best. Run the Helm like it is now and well..... if your breathing then you already know.
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