Oil prices set new record above $142 a barrel as investors flock to commodities
2008-10-17 17:58:36

وكالة الأنباء السعودية - واس

NEW YORK, June 27 , SPA -- Oil futures climbed briefly to a new
record above $142 a barrel Friday on expectations that the
weakening dollar, a major factor in crude's stratospheric
rise, will extend its decline and add to oil's appeal, according to AP.
Retail gas prices inched lower overnight, but are likely
to resume their own trek into record territory now that oil
futures have broken out of the trading range where they had
been for nearly 3 weeks.
In London, Brent crude futures rose $1.35 to $141.18 a
barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
Light, sweet crude for August delivery rose as high as
$142.26 a barrel in premarket electronic trading on the New
York Mercantile Exchange before pulling back to trade up
$1.50 at $141.14. On Thursday, the contract shot past $140
and rose more than $5 to a new settlement record.
Oil rose Thursday in part on comments by OPEC officials;
the organization's president predicted prices will rise
further, and a top Libyan oil official suggested his nation
may cut production.
Meanwhile, traders were coming around to the belief that
the dollar, whose long decline has contributed greatly to
oil's dramatic advance this year, will continue to weaken.
The market now expects that the Federal Reserve will be
unlikely to raise interest rates until much later than many
analysts have forecast; since higher rates tend to
strengthen the dollar, traders are anticipating that it
will continue to fall and, consequently, that investors
will turn to commodities including oil as a hedge against
inflation.
--SPA

المصدر http://www.spa.gov.sa/details.php?id=569004