News

January 29, 2010

Oil Price Is Becalmed This Week But Traders Are Encouraged By Upbeat Forecasts Of US Demand Later This Year

By Eithne Treanor

As world leaders of industry gathered in Davos and President Obama spoke of hope and a long road to recovery, the oil price weakened slightly as traders saw little immediate impact to the up side. But the good news for the longer term is that fossil fuels are here to stay. The appetite for risk in the commodity sector was not buoyant this week and in early trading on Friday, the oil price was around US$74.

Economic data expected from the worlds biggest consumer of energy brought some signs of optimism back to the market. Analysts are expecting to see a growth rate in the US for the final quarter of the year to be close to 4.6 per cent, up from 2.2 per cent in the third quarter. The jobless claims were down slightly and President Obama said that job creation would be one of his biggest efforts in the coming year, which would hopefully support demand for energy in the long term. US oil demand was...