Oil hovers above $66 after weak jobs data

Oil hovers above $66 after weak jobs numbers undermine investor confidence

By JOHN WILEN AP Business Writer | AP

Jul 3, 2009

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Oil prices hovered above $66 a barrel Friday in light holiday trading a day after grim unemployment numbers from the U.S. and Europe sent prices tumbling.

By mid-afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for August delivery was down 16 cents to $66.57 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Thursday, it fell $2.58, nearly 4 percent, to settle at $66.73.

Trading in the U.S. is closed Friday for the Independence Day holiday.

Oil came off an eight-month intraday high of $73.38 a barrel earlier this week on growing investor concerns that a doubling of the crude price since March isn't justified by a sluggish global economy.

"Renewed concern over the global economy, reflected in lower equities, is the main driver of weaker oil market sentiment," said Britain's KBC Market Services. "However, in contrast to recent months, weak oil market fundamentals seem at last to be exerting some influence."

KBC mentioned rising oil inventories and U.S. gasoline stocks as evidence of weak demand.

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Posted By: jjaffie @ 03/26/2009 2:31:14 PM

Don't be a communist. The oil boys gotta make their profits. They gotta keep their stock prices up and the only way to do that is to top their record breaking profits from last year. ExxonMobile had a DAILY NET PROFIT of $123.8 million for 2008.
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Posted By: dburgejr1 @ 02/12/2009 4:29:56 PM

Oil is Down and Gas goes from $1.69 in the morning to $1.79 in the afternoon Do I hear $2.00 tomorrow. who knos the world is a mess and we are in for a ride.
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Posted By: jarcher1 @ 12/26/2008 12:57:39 PM

The reason the market continued down after the OPEC announcement is that oil reserves continue to climb (there hasn't been any actual reduction - the cuts are scheduled after Jan 1) and the fact that OPEC cuts have a bad track record. In the past, as soon as the price rebounded a bit, various members began cheating or non OPEC countries produced more, or a mixture of both. This time the non OPEC countries don't have it to produce, we'll have to wait and see if OPEC members are more disciplined this time.