Oil prices have risen sharply today, despite news that oil inventories rose more than expected last week. Traders pushed oil up $2.92 a barrel Tuesday to $69.63 even though oil inventories rose by 2.8 million barrels last week verse analyst estimates for a rise of 2.1 million barrels.
Helping to spur prices higher was a surprise drop in gasoline inventories. Analysts had been expecting to see gasoline stockpiles rise by 1.2 million barrels, but Tuesday's report from the Department of Energy indicated that gas supplies actually fell by 1.6 million barrels during the week.
Americans are definitely demanding more gasoline, averaging 9.1 million barrels a day over the past four weeks. This is 5.4 percent higher than demand ran during the same time frame last year.
Also giving oil a boost today was today's GDP report which showed that the economy shrank less than expected in the second quarter. Analysts had been expecting to see the economy shrink by 1.1%, but today's report indicated GDP only shrank by 0.7% in the second quarter, and raised hopes that the country may have come out of the recession during the third quarter.
Fears over the Iranian situation may also be contributing to oil prices. Iran has come under pressure for recent actions involving its nuclear program, and today some shocking news came out that the U.S. would look to have one-on-one meetings with the country to discuss recent developments.
The dollar was always down today, giving another reason for oil traders to push up prices.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-30-2009 @ 10:32PM
Iridium said...
Americans aren't demanding more gasoline. The inventory drop was caused by refineries shutting down production.
Everything with oil is just manipulated BS. Look at what oil has done over the past three months. How many times has oil dropped to $65 only to go back to $74. You add that up a few times and you have a couple hundred dollar swings.
Oil prices are being controlled 100% by electronic trading platforms. The computers are triggering sell points at $74 and buy signals at anything below $67. If your firm is on the right side of the trade you can make billions on the up or the down. You can bet Goldman is on the right side every time.
If you ban electronic trading of commodities oil will drop to $35 the next day. Or just burn Goldman Sachs to the ground. That will have the same effect.
This illegal price manipulation garbage needs to stop. WHERE ARE OUR FRICKIN REGULATORS!!! Oh yeah oil price manipulation doesn't matter, only looking into the books of abyone that speaks out against Obama.
10-01-2009 @ 10:13AM
e.krabs said...
Iridium, can you please provide a link or a source to your assertion that refineries have shut down productions?
I'm not questioning you. I just want to know what's going on with oil and why.