Oil rises above $74 on China exports

NEW YORK: Oil settled more than 3 percent higher to top $74 on Wednesday after a report of buoyant Chinese exports eased concerns over the pace of growth in the world”s No. 2 oil consumer and data showed a drawdown in U.S. crude inventories.

Chinese exports grew about 50 percent from a year earlier in May, sources said on Wednesday, in a sign the economy of the second-largest oil user was roaring ahead.

The export figure in a UK-based news agency report, which came ahead of Thursday”s official release, far exceeded expectations and fueled a rise in stock markets globally.

Further support came after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a 1.8 million barrel drop in crude inventories, confirming an earlier report by the American Petroleum Institute of a hefty crude draw.

Crude futures weakened in post-settlement trading, after Wall Street closed lower, dragged down by BP and other energy shares as the U.S. probe of the oil in the Gulf of Mexico intensified.

At the close of electronic trading in New York, U.S. crude for July delivery last traded at $73.90 a barrel, paring gains to $1.91. It had settled in regular hours at $74.38 a barrel, gaining $2.39, off earlier highs of $74.96.

July ICE Brent last traded up $1.50 at $73.80, after having settled at $74.27 a barrel, up $1.97.

Markets also got a lift after U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the economic recovery appeared to be on solid footing and while a double-dip recession “can never be entirely ruled out,” he expects the economy to continue growing.

The EIA report also showed a 1.6 percent rise in U.S. refinery utilization to 89.1 percent and a decline of 500,000 barrels in crude oil stocks at Cushing, Oklahoma, the physical delivery point for U.S. crude futures.

The stock draw in Cushing, which has been holding near record levels in recent weeks and depressing the front-end of the U.S. oil futures curve, helped push up July U.S. crude compared with later months.

“This was a mixed picture, with the sharper than expected draw in crude inventories and larger than expected builds in products,” said Mike Zarembski, senior commodities analyst for optionsXpress in Chicago.

“The draw down in Cushing was a bit of a surprise, narrowing the contango, with July gaining on the back months today,” he added.

The overall EIA crude stock draw, however, was much smaller than the 4.5 million barrel drawdown reported by the API after the market closed on Tuesday.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries gave its verdict on the oil market in its monthly report and revised down its 2010 global oil demand forecast by 10,000 barrels per day to 940,000 bpd.

BP said in its annual Statistical Review of World Energy, released on Wednesday, that world oil demand fell 1.2 million barrels per day in 2009, the second consecutive annual decline and the largest drop in volume since 1982.

But demand in Asia is still robust and many analysts expect consumption in countries such as China and India to bolster global energy markets in future.

Chinese trade data for May, including oil statistics, will be published on Thursday, followed by industrial production for the same month on Friday, with growth forecast at 17.1 percent in a survey, down from a 17.8 percent gain in April.

gyroscope

iPhone 4 adds gyroscope for six-axis gaming
Apple announced the iPhone 4 today and introduced ten new features such as a slimmer body, HD video recording, and improved battery life. However, the iPhone is known for exploding smartphone gaming with hundreds of games from independent and big name developers to the point that Nintendo sees Apple as its main threat now. So, what did Apple add to the iPhone 4 for gaming? How about a 3-axis gyroscope to improve motion controls.

The new 3-axis gyroscope in combination with the existing accelerometer giives the iPhone six-axis mtion sensing (up/down, side to side, forward/backward, pitch/roll). Developers will be able to use the new gyroscope with the CoreMotion API to create games and applications for the smart phone.
According to the information we received today, the phone will be released on June 24th in the U.S. other countries have not been mentioned so far.

The phone will have an enhanced image quality thanks to the Retinal display technology so the screen now displays 326 pixels per inch.
This announcement got a few hearty cheers apparently from the audience at WWDC, and as many iPhone app developers concentrate on the lucrative gaming segment, this isn’t too surprising. Some gaming applications that we can think of right off the bat include flight simulators, better augmented reality apps that take into account elevation/pitch changes, sport games (image iPhone 4 + Wii) and as Jobs demoed, games such as Jenga:

The game that immediately sticks out to me that would benefit the most from this extra degree of control would be a game like Zen Bound [$2.99 / Free], as I imagine manipulating the objects you wrap could be even easier with yet another degree of control. It’s not hard to think of other games that could be enhanced by the extremely precise motion tracking, especially if you’ve ever used a Wii Motion Plus and have seen just how much the addition of a gyroscope can improve how accurately a game can track your movement.

Like anything on the App Store, it’s up to developers to implement these new features. All we can do is wait and see what they come up with once they finally get the device in their hands.

Euro remains under pressure in Asia

TOKYO: The euro remained under pressure in Asia on Tuesday after recovering slightly from a four-year low on persistent worries over European debts, analysts said.

The euro bought 1.2335 dollars in Tokyo morning trade, down from 1.2394 dollars in New York late Monday but up from its low of 1.2234.

The euro also sank to 114.17 yen from 114.79 yen.

The dollar was quoted at 92.48 yen, unchanged from the New York level.

Eurozone finance ministers met in Brussels on Monday, battling to defend the euro but with no obvious agreement on tactics to slash spending.

Sentiment remained fragile despite an EU-IMF rescue package worth almost one trillion dollars designed to prevent the Greek crisis from spreading.

Concerns linger that a default would hit the financial system in the same way the collapse of Lehman Brothers did in 2008, while necessary austerity measures will crush European growth.

“The market simply doesn”t want to buy the euro. Confidence on the euro will not be restored” until the fiscal crisis in Greece and other countries is resolved, said Credit Suisse strategist Satoru Ogasawara.

Ogasawara noted the market now tended to react to negative news rather than positive news, saying the euro could resume its plunge.

A dealer at a major Japanese bank told Dow Jones Newswires that a US bank was selling “a lot of the euro” although there was no fresh news.

The bank”s selling was likely just sell-on-rally activity based on its bet that the euro is likely to fall in the longer term, the dealer said.

Oil above $70 after hitting 5-month low

SINGAPORE: Oil rose above $70 a barrel on Tuesday in a cautious rebound after hitting a five-month low the previous day on concerns about the health of the global economy.

But the trend remains uncertain because of persistent investor jitters over the euro currency and swollen U.S. oil inventories.

The euro dipped on Tuesday after a rebound from a four-year trough on Monday.

“The market has been very volatile. My thinking is that obviously the dominant factor is still concern about the international economic outlook, previous developments in Europe, and that”s continuing to weigh heavily on the oil price,” said David Moore, an analyst at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

U.S. crude for June delivery rose 57 cents to $70.65 at 0237 GMT, after settling down $1.53 at a five-month low of $70.08 a day earlier.

June crude has fallen 20.5 percent from its 19-month high $87.15 hit on May 3, which could indicate that crude prices may be in for a short-term bounce, technical analysts said.

London Brent crude for July rose 71 cents to $75.81 a barrel.

“Nothing is impossible at the moment. The oil price has been falling dramatically in the past couple of weeks,” said Moore.

“I think at some point it will stabilize and recover, but the time is uncertain and the market”s fundamentals are of course very very fragile at present.”

Stockpiles of crude at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery hub for the U.S. contract”s West Texas Intermediate benchmark crude, have risen in the last eight weeks to a record high 37 million barrels, pushing front-month U.S. crude down relative to later futures contracts and the other global crude benchmark, Brent.

U.S. crude stockpiles likely rose last week as crude imports rebounded and refinery utilization held unchanged, a preliminary poll of analysts showed on Monday.

Ahead of weekly inventory data from industry group American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday and the U.S. government Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday, crude inventories rose 700,000 barrels on average last week.

That would extend a buildup that started in the last week of January, and post the 15th increase in 16 weeks.

Distillate stocks were forecast at 1.0 million barrels higher while gasoline stockpiles likely fell 1.1 million barrels, the poll showed.

But Goldman Sachs said in a research note on Monday the high stockpile at Cushing may reverse.

“As we expect refinery runs to continue to increase, we remain confident that the situation in Cushing should reverse over the coming weeks,” it said.

Oil falls to $82 on high U.S. stockpiles

SINGAPORE: Oil prices fell toward $82 a barrel on Wednesday, extending the steepest one-day percentage loss in three months in the previous session, on rising oil inventories and a firm dollar.

The dollar surged to fresh one-year highs against the euro on Wednesday, as a sell-off in the euro gathered momentum, with sentiment decidedly bearish as fears about contagion in the euro zone gripped investors. The dollar rose 0.27 percent against a basket of currencies.

NYMEX crude for June delivery fell 37 cents to $82.37 a barrel by 0215 GMT.

The contract dropped $3.45, or 4 percent, to settle at $82.74 a barrel on Tuesday. In post-settlement trading, it ended electronic trading at $82.07, down $4.15 or 4.78 percent, the largest one-day percentage loss since the 4.99 percent slide on February 4.

London Brent crude slid 45 cents to $85.22 a barrel.

“The main influences now are the rise in the dollar, the sovereign concerns in the euro zone spreading into Portugal and Spain. I think a pretty important factor though going forward is that build in oil stocks in the United States,” said Ben Westmore, an analyst at National Australia Bank.

“The price at those low $80s per barrel sort of mark is consistent with the market fundamental alone. I would expect oil price to track around low $80s for the rest of the week.”

Crude oil inventories at the key storage hub at Cushing, Oklahoma, rose by 1.7 million barrels to a record high of 36.3 million barrels, according to data from industry group the American Petroleum Institute (API).

Overall, U.S. crude stockpiles rose by 3 million barrels in the week to April 30, API data showed, versus analyst expectations of a 1.1 million barrel rise in the latest poll by a UK-based news agency.

Gasoline stocks rose by 1.5 million barrels last week, more than the expected rise of 200,000 barrels, according to analyst estimates.

Distillates including heating oil and diesel rose by 1.4 million barrels, versus expectations of a 1.7 million barrel rise.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration”s report is set to arrive on Wednesday at 1400 GMT.

Crude oil prices have not been seriously impacted so far from a giant oil spill off the U.S. Gulf Coast.

A flotilla of nearly 200 boats tackled a massive oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday, taking advantage of calm weather to intensify containment efforts while a scientist warned that a powerful current could carry the crude to Miami and points beyond.

Oil Slips Before US Energy Report

SINGAPORE: Oil prices hovered above $81 a barrel Wednesday in Asia after a report showed mixed evidence about U.S. crude demand.

Benchmark crude for April delivery was up 5 cents to $81.54 a barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract lost 38 cents to settle at $81.49 on Tuesday.

Oil has jumped about 17 percent since early last month on increased investor confidence in this year’s global economic growth. But crude demand from the U.S., the world’s largest consumer of oil, has remained sluggish.

Crude inventories jumped last week by 6.5 million barrels, the American Petroleum Institute said late Wednesday. Analysts, eyeing a cold weather spell in much of the U.S. this month, had expected a drop of 1.6 million barrels, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

However, inventories of gasoline and distillates fell more than analysts expected, the API said.

The Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration is scheduled to announce its supply report later Wednesday.

In other Nymex trading in April contracts, heating oil rose 0.44 cent to $2.0942 a gallon, and gasoline gained 0.83 cent to $2.2686 a gallon. Natural gas was down 1.1 cents at $4.505 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, Brent crude was up 9 cents at $80.00 on the ICE futures exchange.

Oil Lower On Indications Of Weak US Demand

SINGAPORE: Oil fell in Asian trade Wednesday as sentiment was dampened by a private report showing weaker US energy demand, analysts said.

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for April delivery was seven cents lower at 79.61 dollars a barrel.

Brent North Sea crude for April delivery dropped four cents to 78.14 dollars a barrel.

The American Petroleum Institute (API), an industry group, said late Tuesday crude stocks in the country rose by 2.67 million barrels in the past week while gasoline reserves increased 909,000 barrels.

Distillate stocks, which include heating fuel, fell 4.07 million barrels.

“I think the crude build-up is certainly bearish so inventories remain high,” said Victor Shum, a Singapore-based analyst with energy consultancy Purvin and Gertz.

“The fundamentals will prevent pricing from being sustainable at the 80-plus dollar level,” he said.

The API report is usually released a day before the weekly US Department of Energy (DoE) report on petroleum stocks movements.

Analysts polled by Dow Jones expect the DoE report to show crude stocks rising by one million barrels but distillate stocks is seen declining by 700,000 barrels.

Oil Prices Stay On A Point

SINGAPORE: Oil prices hung below $71 a barrel Wednesday in Asia as an unexpected rise in U.S. crude supplies heightened investor concerns about weak consumer demand.

Benchmark crude for October delivery was down 35 cents to $70.58 a barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Tuesday, the contract rose $2.07 to settle at $70.93.

Crude prices have hugged the $70 level for months as gasoline demand remains sluggish amid signs the global economy is recovering.

On Tuesday, a SpendingPulse report by MasterCard showed the four-week average for gasoline consumption in the U.S. fell 3.2 percent for the week ended Friday, the ninth straight weekly decline.

U.S. oil inventories rose last week, more evidence demand remains tepid, the American Petroleum Institute said late Tuesday. Crude stocks increased 631,000 barrels while analysts had expected a drop of 3.0 million barrels, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

Supplies of gasoline grew 1.3 million barrels while distillates jumped 5.2 million barrels, the API said.

A weakening U.S. dollar has helped support oil prices. The euro rose Wednesday in Asian trading to $1.4675 from $1.4656 the previous day while the dollar held near 91 yen.

In other Nymex trading, gasoline for October delivery fell 1.87 cents to $1.77 a gallon, and heating oil slid 1.90 cents to $1.76 a gallon. Natural gas jumped 9.2 cents to $3.41 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, Brent crude rose 2 cents to $67.37.

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Oil Prices Stay On A Point was first posted on September 16, 2009 at 3:03 pm.
©2009 “News Trends“.