Crude oil trims losses in morning trade

5 March 2010

Written by Kim Bardsley

Crude oil prices were up on the New York Mercantile Exchange this morning (March 5th), rallying after losses seen in Thursday's trading.

During the electronic trading session of the exchange, crude oil prices inched towards $81 (£53.80) a barrel, approaching seven-week highs achieved earlier in the week and recovering from losses seen yesterday on the back of a stronger dollar.

Tom Bentz, broker at BNP Paribas Commodity Futures Inc in New York, told Reuters that weak home sales figures also weighed on crude.

"The market was not responding well to the positive economic reports. Now home sales data is weighing. Once again the market is in [the] $80/$81 range and can't sustain a rally," he explained.

Heating oil prices also climbed this morning as traders awaited the latest US payrolls data.

Although many analysts had feared job losses in the region of 50,000, preliminary figures showed jobless applications fell for the week ending February 27th, assuaging these fears somewhat.

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