Oil flat after five-day slump

29 July 2010

Written by Kim Bardsley

Crude oil prices were hovering below $77 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange this morning (July 29th), subdued after yesterday's demand report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed an unexpectedly large increase in crude stocks.

The September-delivery crude contract fell below $77 a barrel in late trading following the EIA report, settling lower for the fifth consecutive session.

However, those losses were stanched in trading this morning as the dollar tumbled in global forex trading, making investment in dollar-denominated commodities such as crude and heating oil more attractive to foreign traders.

Speaking to Bloomberg, Jonathan Barratt, managing director at Commodity Broking Services in Sydney, said that these two factors - weak demand and a falling dollar - created a mixed sentiment on trading floors.

"The oil market looks to be nicely controlled within a range. The fundamental story is not clear. We saw inventory builds at a time when we didn't expect them to rise," he said.