Crude oil finishes flat after early gains

24 November 2009

Crude oil prices closed broadly level at the close of trading yesterday (November 23rd) despite registering strong gains in early trading on the back of a weaker dollar.

The headline crude futures contract trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange closed for the day at $78.45 (£47.22) a barrel, up nine cents on its opening price. Earlier in the day it had crept towards the $80-a-barrel mark, but gains were wiped out during the US trading session, despite broadly optimistic housing figures from the States.

Investors will today look ahead to the American Petroleum Institute (API) for clues that demand for crude and derivative products such as heating oil is beginning to recover.

The API figures are often viewed as a precursor to the broader weekly demand report published by the Energy Information Administration, which will release its latest figures on Wednesday, covering inventories of crude, propane, gasoline and distillates such as heating oil.