Oil near four- month high amid global recovery
MARKET IS TRENDING ON THE UPSIDE, CREATING A LITTLE BIT OF OPTIMISM
Khalid Al Falih, Saudi Arabian Oil Co.’ s chief executive, said on Saturday in Davos.
“We can be a little bit optimistic on the economic recovery, and of course on China and the US,” said Ken Hasegawa, an energy trading manager at Newedge Group in Tokyo who says WTI may climb as high as $ 100 a barrel this week, while Brent will trade in a range of $ 112 to $ 118. “The oil market is trending to the upside.”
Crude for March delivery was at $ 96.02 a barrel, up 14 cents, in electronic trading in New York at 12: 42pm Singapore time yesterday. The volume of all futures traded was 1.5 per cent below the 100- day average.
WTI rose 0.3 per cent to $ 95.88 last week and closed at $ 96.24 on January 22, the highest since September 17. Brent for March settlement slid 6 cents to $ 113.22 a barrel on the London- based ICE Futures Eu-
Oil traded near the highest price in four months in New York after posting the longest run of weekly gains since April 2009, lifted by speculation that a global economic recovery will boost fuel demand.
West Texas Intermediate crude was little changed after climbing for a seventh week. Chinese industrial companies’ profits rose for a fourth month in December, the National Bureau of Statistics in Beijing said on Sunday.
US government reports later yesterday were expected to show durable goods orders and pending homes sales advanced last month, according to Bloomberg News surveys. The oil market is “well supplied,” rope exchange. The volume of all futures traded was 6 per cent above the 100- day average. The European benchmark contract was at a premium of $ 17.21 to WTI. The gap was $ 17.40 on January 25.
US, China looking up
Durable goods orders in the US, the world’s biggest oil consumer, probably advanced 2 per cent in December from the prior month after climbing 0.8 per cent in November, according to the median estimate. Pending home sales probably gained 0.1 per cent, a separate survey shows.
Net income by industrial companies in China, the secondlargest oil user, increased 17.3 per cent from a year earlier to 895 billion yuan ($ 144 billion).