Crude oil jumps after earnings reports

3 February 2010

Published by John King

Crude prices recorded the largest single-day gain seen in four months yesterday, supported by stronger than anticipated earnings reports from the US, while heating oil prices also rose.

Although the headline crude contract closed above $77 (£48) a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange yesterday, prices dipped this morning as Asian markets reacted to the latest demand figures from the American Petroleum Institute.

The group published a weekly inventories report late yesterday which showed a 4.7 million-barrel rise in crude stocks last week, against analyst expectations of a 200,000-barrel climb.

Stefan Graber, a commodities analyst with Credit Suisse in Singapore, said weak demand may continue to weigh on prices with the publication of additional inventories data from the Energy Information Administration due out later today.

"If we see overall oil demand in the US improve and that oil product inventories are being worked off, that would be a positive signal for the market," he commented.

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