Month: February 2015

A pump jack near Denver. Oil prices jumped 7% on Tuesday. ENLARGE Photo: Reuters Crude prices rose to the highest level this year amid signs a global supply glut could ease, but some investors and analysts said the worst of the oil rout may not be over. The benchmark U.S. oil price has surged 19% since Wednesday, the largest four-day percentage gain since January 2009. The jump follows a selloff that saw oil tumble from more than $107 to less than $45 a barrel in seven months. Oil settled Tuesday at $53.05 a barrel, its highest level since Dec. 31, up $3.48, or 7%, on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the global benchmark, rose $3.16, or 5.8%, to $57.91. The rise in crude-oil prices spurred a rally in energy stocks, which helped lift the Dow Jones Industrial Average 305.36 points. Crude gains in recent days have been […]

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LONDON (Reuters) – The U.S. dollar steadied on Wednesday after its worst day in more than a year, and a retreat in oil prices after four days of gains halted a rally in European stock markets. Globally, investors’ appetite for risk appears much stronger than it was a week ago. Oil has bounced almost 20 percent in value inside a week, stock markets are back on the rise and the euro is up almost 4 cents from low against the dollar. But for the dollar that may simply add up to a clearing of the decks before another push higher, while a heady brew of concerns over politics, growth and monetary policy has left stocks struggling for clear direction. In Europe much attention is focussed on Greece, where shares fell 1 percent in early deals and government bond yields rose on a report that the European Central Bank is […]

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oil prices jumped again on Tuesday as a tumbling dollar sent most commodities rallying, bringing crude’s four-day rise to about 19 percent, its biggest such advance since January 2009. Despite signs that U.S. crude supplies had registered another heavy build last week, investors were more confident that oil prices have hit a bottom after a seven-month rout. Traders said oil bulls were encouraged by BP’s plan to cut capital expenditures 13 percent in 2015, which came after reductions announced by other major energy companies. Benchmark Brent crude oil LCOc1 settled up $3.16, or nearly 6 percent, at $57.91 a barrel. It rallied as high as $59 for the first time since end of December. U.S. crude CLc1, or WTI, finished up $3.48, or 7 percent, at $53.05, after a session high at $54.24. A global glut of crude had prompted a sell-off that brought oil […]

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Oil prices soared to a one-month high on Tuesday, providing investors some respite from a prolonged selloff that rattled financial markets, the energy sector and oil-dependent economies. U.S. oil futures notched a fourth consecutive gain, their longest winning streak since August. Prices have risen 19% in that time. The benchmark crude-oil contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange settled up $3.48, or 7%, at $53.05 a barrel, the highest settlement price since Dec. 31, 2014. Despite the jump in oil prices, few investors and analysts are willing to call a bottom to a downdraft that began in July, the magnitude of which caught many market experts by surprise . Plunging oil prices, driven by a global glut of crude oil, pummeled shares of oil companies and the currencies of oil-producing nations. The decline also prompted cutbacks to energy spending and investment, potentially sowing the seeds for a sustained recovery […]

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By Nicole Friedman NEW YORK–Natural-gas prices fell for a fifth-straight day Tuesday on expectations that mild temperatures would continue to limit demand for the heating fuel. Futures for March delivery recently fell 2.3 cents, or 0.9%, to $2.657 a million British thermal units, on track to settle at a fresh more-than-two-year low. Prices have slid in recent weeks as robust supply growth has outweighed tepid demand. Natural-gas consumption is usually strongest in the winter, because half of U.S. households use natural gas as their primary heating fuel, but this winter’s temperatures have kept demand subdued. While forecasts are calling for colder-than-average weather in the eastern U.S. this week, temperatures are expected to moderate in the next 11 to 15 days. "Everywhere except the Northeast is to see normal to below-normal heating demand this week, while absolute temperatures begin to clamber higher as we move away from the peak of […]

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In Saudi Arabia, drivers pay roughly 45 cents a gallon to fill up their cars, and in Venezuela even less. Energy is so inexpensive in Kuwait and Qatar that residents chill their enormous swimming pools in the summer and typically leave their air-conditioners on at full blast while they are away on vacation. Across the Middle East and much of the developing world, government subsidies make energy cheap and encourage consumption. But governments around the world are beginning to take advantage of plummeting oil and natural gas prices by slashing the subsidies. The cuts are just a small fraction of the global total of annual subsidies, but energy experts say they are beginning to add up. Even with oil rebounding in recent days — including a 6 percent rise on Tuesday for the global Brent crude benchmark — the price is down nearly 50 percent from its peak last year of just […]

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