US crude rises $3/bbl after Wall Street rally

17 October 2008 06:50  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Crude futures made strong gains on Friday with US NYMEX light sweet crude climbing more than $3/bbl following a stock market rally on Wall Street late on Thursday.

 

At 5:25 a.m. GMT, November NYMEX light sweet crude futures were trading at $72.93/bbl, up $3.08/bbl on Thursday’s settlement level, having earlier hit a high of $73.02bbl up $3.17/bbl.

 

At the same time, December ICE Brent futures were trading at $70.46/bbl, up $2.62/bbl on Thursday’s settlement price, having earlier hit a high of $70.60/bbl up $2.76/bbl.

 

The November ICE Brent contract expired on Thursday.

 

After recent sharp falls in shares prices, Wall Street investors in search of bargains re-entered the market late on Thursday ahead of the expiry of stock options pushing the Dow Jones industrial average up 4.68%.

 

Meanwhile, expectations of production cut by OPEC were raised by news that the organisation had brought forward its planned meeting to next Friday 24 October.

 

The meeting had been scheduled to take place on 18 November.

 

Weekly US supply data released on Thursday revealed larger than expected builds in crude and gasoline stocks of 5.6m bbls and 7m bbls respectively. Distillate stocks showed a surprise decline of 500,000 bbls.

 

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By: James Dennis
+65 6780 4359

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