CRUDE PRICE BETTER, NOT GREAT

Canada’s oilpatch has little to celebrate even though crude oil prices concluded their best ever month. The price of West Texas Intermediate surged 88 per cent in May as it gained 5.2 per cent Friday to reach US$35.47 per barrel. That’s a huge turnaround from the April 2 low of US$11.57 — and up from US$18.84 at the end of April — but it’s about $30 below where crude was in January. “It’s not as dire as it was, but it’s still not a very good situation either,” said Colin Cieszynski, chief market strategist at SIA Wealth Management. “It’s still a low price where not very many people are going to be making money and it’s still going to be a challenge for stocks, no question about it, and for companies.” He said people initially thought the price floor would be US$40 and now it’s looking more like within the US$30S.