Spot Crude Oil Prices Trading at Weekly High
February 11th, 2010 Posted in Oil and Precious Metals
Spot crude oil prices rose yesterday to their highest in a week after severe winter weather punished the Eastern half of the U.S., causing traders to go long on the commodity.
The price of spot crude oil is currently being traded at $75.19, up from its opening price on Monday by $71.71. The price range the commodity has been traded in has been wide, reflecting the current volatility that exists in the market.
Heavy snow storms pounded the Northeastern U.S. states after dumping large amounts of snow on the Midwestern States. This has helped to increase short term demand for heating oil.
A large amount of the volatility in the market took place during Wednesday’s New York trading session. It seems that traders are unsure of where prices are headed at this time with the strong winter storms in the U.S. and a lack of stability surrounding the fiscal crisis in the European Union.
Yesterday the U.S. Energy Information Administration released its short term crude oil expectations. The agency expects global crude oil demand to rise by 2.1% for the current quarter and an increase of 1.4% for the year.
The report comes as a positive for spot crude oil trading. Stronger demand for crude oil is expected to come at the same time of an economic recovery.
Spot crude oil prices were trading lower most of the day yesterday, moving in the opposite direction of the stronger dollar. However, as the dollar began to weaken, spot crude oil prices rose. The dollar and spot crude oil prices move in opposite directions.
Traders will be looking towards Friday’s release of the weekly crude oil inventory numbers for further signs of rising crude oil demand. Any positive sign should help boost the price of spot crude oil further.
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Tags: Commodities, Crude Oil Inventories, dollar, spot crude oil, spot crude oil prices, spot crude oil trading
