May US crude plunges $5.96, ignores statistics

19 March 2008 19:48  [Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (ICIS news)--NYMEX light sweet crude futures for May delivery settled on Wednesday at $102.54/bbl, down $5.96 as economic worries returned to the front burner and overshadowed a set of supportive supply statistics.

The April crude contract expired at the end of the session so the focus switched to the forward month. April settled at $104.48/bbl, down $4.94.

During an extremely volatile session, dominated by dollar swings in a matter of minutes, May crude topped out at $106.40/bbl and plunged to $102.26/bbl before rebounding slightly ahead of the closing bell.

Worries that a deteriorating economy will affect commodity demand overshadowed the weekly supply statistics from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), which showed a much smaller-than-forecast build in crude stocks and an unexpected drawdown in gasoline inventories.

A substantial reduction in refinery runs also resulted in distillate stocks declining for the sixth consecutive week.

May ICE Brent also fell sharply, bottoming out at $100.16/bbl before settling at $100.72/bbl, down $4.84/bbl.

Heating oil for April delivery lost 12 cents to close at $3.02/gal; while same-month gasoline reformulated blendstock for oxygenate blending (RBOB) fell 10 cents to close at $2.56/gal.

By: Ignacio Sotolongo
+1 713 525 2653

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