Crude oil fell for a sixth day on speculation production capacity is more than sufficient to meet increased demand as the global economy recovers from recession.
World markets are well supplied and there is no need for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to alter its output quotas, Qatari Oil Minister Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah said yesterday. Temperatures in the U.S. northeast will probably be above average through Jan. 27, the national weather service said yesterday.
“It looks like a little bit of a swing in sentiment,” said Mark Pervan, senior commodity strategist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. in Melbourne. “The market’s been held up by some sentiment issues and some less solid fundamental factors such as some of the economic data and some of the weather forecasts. The hard supply and demand numbers behind it all really don’t hold up all that strongly.” Crude oil for February delivery fell as much as 46 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $77.54 a barrel in after hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was at $77.55 at 8:37 a.m. in Singapore.
The contract, which expires this week, dropped $1.39 to $78 on Jan. 15, the lowest settlement since Dec. 23 and a 5.7 percent loss for the week. Oil posted its first weekly decline since Dec. 11 as U.S. stockpiles rose, temperatures climbed and gains by the dollar reduced the investment appeal of commodities. The dollar rose for a third day, trading at $1.4366 against the euro today from $1.4387 late in New York last week.....
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