Oil was little changed at $74 a barrel after China sought to temper its economic expansion and a Saudi adviser said the U.S. aims to cut oil imports. China, the world’s second largest oil consuming country, ordered banks to set aside more deposits as reserves for the second time in a month on Feb. 12, signaling slower economic growth and reduced energy demand. Saudi oil ministry adviser Mohammad al-Sabban said today the U.S. is promoting nuclear power as a means of cutting oil imports.
“The market is a bit uneasy about the Chinese tightening,” said Eugen Weinberg, an analyst with Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt. China is not “yet the largest importer; it’s not yet the largest consumer region. Still, it is one of the most important ones.” Crude oil for March delivery traded at $74 a barrel, down 13 cents, at the halt of electronic trading for the contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 1:15 p.m. Trading resumes at 6 p.m. New York time. There is no floor trading today because of the U.S. Presidents’ Day holiday.
The dollar advanced to $1.3601 against the euro, from $1.3632, as of 3:15 p.m. in New York. The Dollar Index, a six- currency gauge of the greenback’s value, rose 0.14 percent to 80.366. A rise in the value of the dollar curbs demand for commodities as an alternative investment. “What we would be looking for in the next week is how the U.S. dollar is going to behave,” said Harry Tchilinguirian, head of commodity derivatives research at BNP Paribas SA in London. “You are going to be looking at how the dollar is going to behave against a number of currency pairs”....Read the entire article.
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