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Oil prices move higher on Middle East concerns

Posted Oct 25th 2007 2:07PM by Michael Fowlkes (RSS feed)
Filed under: Major movement, International markets, Consumer experience, Middle East, Scandals, Economic data, Politics, Oil

Oil prices have picked up right where they left off yesterday, fueled by new concerns over tensions in the Middle East. Prices have moved up $1.42 on the day to $88.52 and hit an intraday high of $88.99 earlier in the session.

Yesterday, traders pushed prices higher after the U.S. Energy Department's weekly inventory report showed an unexpected decline of 5.3 million barrels, but today's extra price gains are being attributed to new violence between Israel and Lebanon. Any Middle Eastern conflicts will result in price gains, and that is exactly what we are seeing today on news that Lebanese troops fired on Israeli warplanes.

While it is true that a conflict between Israel and Lebanon would not impact supplies from the region, there is always the fear that an escalation of violence between the two would draw in the big oil players in the region. This is the first encounter since last summer's conflict between Israel and Hezbollah rebels, which pushed oil prices to last summer's highs.

Continue reading Oil prices move higher on Middle East concerns

Oil prices reverse course after inventory report

Posted Oct 24th 2007 1:43PM by Michael Fowlkes (RSS feed)
Filed under: Major movement, International markets, Forecasts, Consumer experience, Middle East, Oil

When we took a look at oil prices earlier this morning, we saw that traders were selling off the precious crude in anticipation of a bearish inventory report today. Well, the market was shocked by an unexpected large decline in inventories, and prices have reversed course and moved strongly to the upside over the past hour.

Before this week's report from the U.S. Energy Department, oil prices had dropped to around $85 a barrel but are now trading up $1.36 on the day to $86.63. The reason? A very surprising drop of 5.3 million barrels last week! Prior to today's report, analysts were mixed but were for the most part expecting to see an increase of about 300,000 barrels. Even the most bullish analysts out there were only expecting to see a decline of 2 million barrels, so the 5.3 million actual draw in inventories definitely caught the market off guard.

The Energy Department attributed the unusual drop to a large decline in imports last week, which fell by 1.3 million barrels a day down to 9.1 million barrels.

Continue reading Oil prices reverse course after inventory report

Oil prices dip ahead of today's inventory report

Posted Oct 24th 2007 10:08AM by Michael Fowlkes (RSS feed)
Filed under: International markets, Forecasts, Middle East, Oil

Oil prices are continuing today to pull back from their recent highs. Crude has fallen 19 cents, down to $85.08, and were briefly trading down as low as $84.68 earlier in the session.

Last week prices shot up on fear that escalating tensions between Turkey and the Kurds of Northern Iraq could lead to supply disruptions in the area. But those fears have been overlooked during the past couple of sessions as traders are now paying closer attention to American inventory levels.

When the U.S. Energy Department releases its weekly inventory report later this morning, analysts polled by the Dow Jones Newswires are expecting to see crude inventories jump by around 300,000 barrels. If there is indeed a jump in inventories, you can be sure prices will continue to come under selling pressure, but not everyone agrees we will see inventory levels increase. Some industry experts are taking the opposite position and predicting a 2 million barrel decrease last week.

For now, the bears are winning, but we will get a much better picture of the current situation once the actual numbers come out later this morning. I will post the results here as well as the markets reaction.

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last two years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer

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Last updated: November 10, 2009: 10:11 AM

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