Oil down in choppy trading session

10 March 2010

Written by Bob Burton

Crude prices moved lower during the electronic trading session of the New York Mercantile Exchange this morning (March 10th), with traders in Asian markets reacting to mixed fundamentals.

Despite new figures from China's General Administration of Customs showing a surge in crude and oil product imports in February, demand signals in the US were far less bullish.

According to the American Petroleum Institute, crude inventories rose 6.5 million barrels in the week ending March 5th, exceeding industry expectations of a 1.9 million-barrel build.

Speaking to Reuters, Tony Nunan, a risk manager with Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Corp, said that demand fundamentals do not support prices above $82 (£54) a barrel.

"The market has been strong on the belief that the economy is slowly getting better, but it's probably gone too far," he commented.

As European markets opened, crude was trading around the $81.30 mark, while heating oil prices were steady at $2.092 a gallon.

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