Crude oil down as driving season ends

6 September 2010

Written by Kim Bardsley

Crude oil prices were falling for a second day on the New York Mercantile Exchange this morning (September 6th) as traders anticipate a drop in demand for gasoline in the US.

The end of the US driving season, marked today by the Labour Day holiday, is expected to result in a sharp drop in demand for gasoline, leading traders to bet that the price of the fuel will fall.

A poll carried out by Bloomberg showed that for the first time in four years, the balance of traders are expecting gasoline prices to fall rather than rise.

Serene Lim, a commodity analyst at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group, said: "With the summer driving season now being over, we can certainly expect that lower gasoline demand will have an impact on oil prices."

By 02:57 Central Standard Time, near-term crude contracts were trading down 28 cents at $74.32 a barrel, while heating oil was also half a cent lower at $2.051 a gallon.

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