Posted on 02/07/2003 2:50:30 PM PST by RCW2001
| Friday, Febuary 7, 2003 04:39 PM ET | ||
| NEW YORK -- Crude-oil futures topped $35 a barrel Friday amid skyrocketing heating-oil prices which reached a 23-year high before pulling back a bit.
At the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude set for March delivery rose 96 cents to settle at $35.12 a barrel. March heating oil posted a 23-year high of $ 1.113 a gallon before closing at $1.0957 a gallon, up 6.86 cents on the day.
March gasoline rose 3.87 cents to $1.067 a gallon. At London's International Petroleum Exchange, March Brent rose 90 cents to close $32.34 a barrel. February gasoil rallied $20.25 to $317.25 a metric ton. "The most immediate concern for the markets today is the surging price of heating oil," said Mike Fitzpatrick, an analyst at brokerage Fimat Futures Inc. Heating-oil futures have jumped nearly 20% this week amid tightening supplies and soaring cash prices. The rally got started Wednesday after the Department of Energy reported an unexpectedly large decline in inventories. Heating-oil inventories fell 11% last week to 42.5 million barrels, as demand soared to a record 4.9 million barrels a day. The drawdown on the East Coast, which is heavily dependent on heating oil, was an even more acute 15%. East Coast inventories for the fuel have fallen by 24% over the past month and are 30% below their level of a year ago. With cold weather persisting on the East Coast, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration revised up Friday its estimate for first-quarter distillate demand by 90,000 barrels a day to 4.19 million barrels. "Once you get into a panic buying situation you really never know when it's going to stop," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago. Meanwhile, the U.S. stepped up pressure on the United Nations Security Council to take action to force Iraq to disarm. President Bush urged the Security Council to "make up its mind soon" about confronting Iraq, or the U.S. will disarm Saddam Hussein with the help of a coalition of allies. "If the Security Council were to allow a dictator to lie and deceive, the Security Council will be weak," he added. U.S. officials said the next few days will be dedicated to turning up pressure on reluctant allies such as France and Germany as well as other Security Council members. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who laid out the U.S. case to the Security Council Wednesday, told lawmakers Thursday the Iraqi situation would be brought to a conclusion "one way or another" in a matter of weeks. Regardless of whether the Security Council approves a new resolution, the U.S. appears intent on launching an attack on Iraq, analysts said. Meanwhile, the Nymex March natural-gas futures contract rose 21.5 cents to $ 6.043 per million British thermal units. In other commodity markets: GRAINS: March soybeans fell 6.75 cents to $5.5575 a bushel at the Chicago Board of Trade. March wheat gained four cents to $3.31 a bushel. METALS: March gold on the Comex division of Nymex was down 20 cents to $370.20 an ounce. Dow Jones Newswires 02-07-03 1639ET |
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Stand, and deliver! Get'em GW!
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