|
|
| |
|
 |
|
Crude Reverses |
|
| |
|
|
| |
The cause of the explosion1 is still unknown. It killed at least 14 people at BP's Texas City, Texas
plant and injured as many as 100. The refinery is the third largest in the U.S. and the largest in the
BP system with about 450,000 barrels of capacity. The explosion rocked BP's isomerization unit,
which produces high-octane additives for gasoline -- but the rest of the refinery was running
normally.
"This should not be a huge event in U.S. refining," said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil
Price Information Service. "Premium gasoline's market share has been sliding in the last few
years, so there's no shortage of U.S. octane overall."
Mr. Kloza said earlier that a rally in gasoline prices would not be a surprise, but added it would
make no sense to see crude prices post gains. "Retail prices still have five to 10 cents per gallon of
catching up to do, and I suspect they will be moving higher into next week," he said. "Refinery
downtime means less demand for crude oil -- not more."
May crude-oil futures fell 31 cents to $53.50 a barrel. April heating oil fell 0.66 cent to $1.527 a
gallon. April-dated gasoline futures were last at $1.555 a gallon, off 1.3%, or 1.99 cents. The
contract hit a record $1.608 in after-hours trading Wednesday on the blast news.
April natural gas fell 14.8 cents to $6.99 per million British thermal units after the Energy
Department said natural gas in storage fell 89 billion cubic feet for the week ended March 18.
That was less than the 95 billion cubic feet withdrawal analysts expected.
In other commodity markets:
METALS: Gold for April delivery added a dime to $425.50 an ounce, after falling $6.20 on
Wednesday. The benchmark contract is down about 3.3% this week. Also higher, May silver rose
1.5 cents to $7.00 an ounce. The silver contract's cumulative loss for the week stands at about 40
cents. April platinum won back much of Wednesday's weakness, rising $7.50 to $863.50 an
ounce, while June palladium added 60 cents to $194.50 an ounce after sustaining a big loss in the
previous session. Thursday's big mover was copper, with the May contract rising 1.5 cents, or 1%,
to $1.4595 a pound.
--Mike Maynard
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
© 2002-2008 Opportunities In Options - All Rights Reserved |
|
| |
Although this information is believed to be correct and from reliable sources, no guarantees are being made to its accuracy. Past performance is not indicative of future results. All trading involves a risk of loss.
|
|
|
|
|
|
