Crude oil flat in morning trade

1 February 2010

Written by John King

Crude oil prices were hovering around $72.80 (£45.75) a barrel during the electronic trading session of the New York Mercantile Exchange this morning (February 1st).

After suffering substantial losses last week, crude futures were weighed down once more at the start of the month as concerns about Chinese growth and global fuel demand continued to prevail on trading floors in Asia and Europe.

Speaking to Reuters, Benson Wang, an oil trader at Commodity Broking Services in Sydney, said warmer weather across much of Europe and North America is bringing the price of crude and fuels such as heating oil lower as the premium witnessed during the December cold snap is factored out.

He added that there is a likelihood that prices will fall further towards the end of each market session.

"Looking at how crude oil prices have collapsed in the last 1-2 hours of trading in the past few sessions, I think it shows a trend whereby investors are trying to get out of their long positions," he commented.

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