Crude Oil Prices Jump

Oil jumped significantly higher today after trading virtually sideways all week last week. Crude oil for August delivery was up $2.33 or 3.4 percent and finished the day on the New York Mercantile Exchange at $71.49 a barrel. This was the highest close since June 12. In early trading on Tuesday June 30 it was up another .76 cents and it's expected to continue higher.

One of the factors driving oil higher is the continued attacks on oil interests in Nigeria by rebel militants. Royal Dutch Shell had to close one of its facilities six weeks ago after an attack and a rebel group said it attacked another Shell facility on Monday. Just last week Nigeria's president offered amnesty from prosecution if the militants turned over their weapons, they declined the offer wanting money from oil companies who they claim are destroying the environment and for members of their groups to be released from jail, the Nigerian government of course, refuses to meet those demands.

Chevron and other U.S. companies also have oil interests in the volatile region of Africa as Nigeria sells 44% of its oil exports to the United States. According to government sources the attacks have at least temporarily shut down about 1.26 million barrels per day of oil production. Nigeria is a member of OPEC and produces approximately 2.17 million barrels per day of oil and is the 5th largest foreign oil supplier to the United States.

In addition to the attacks in Nigeria, a positive stock market help buoy oil prices, many traders think a greater economy equals more spending and more spending equals more gas usage. The recent market turnaround has help to raise oil prices since it was trading around $40 in February. Oil has found recent support and resistance levels at $69 per barrel, $70 per barrel and $72 per barrel. So this recent price action may be a breakout sending oil prices significantly higher. Many traders are still in fear of an oil superspike this summer that will make last years $140 a barrel oil look cheap. Some saying we could see prices go well over $200 a barrel.

Gold prices also rose over a dollar to nearly $942 per troy ounce. The precious metal should trade relatively sideways this week as people clean up their portfolios before the July 4th holiday. Gold prices have been strong since around June 12 when the dollar began its clear down trend. The $940 level has also been a key support and resistance level and this breakout signifies to many gold investors that the commodity is headed higher. Some commodity investors believe that we will see gold at $1300 before the end of the year. The bullishness of gold has also brought silver prices off of its June lows of around 13.86. Now trading around the $14.oo per ounce level.

Oil Falls Below $67

Crude oil futures dropped to $66.94 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Monday. Oil has been on a nice run over the past few months but was unable to support the 72-73 dollar level and fell below key technical support levels of 69 and 70. An attack by militants on an oil rig off the shore of Nigeria, the third attack in less than 24 hours, failed to help the commodity.
A decent size discovery of natural gas off the coast of Norway with an estimated 10 to 100 billion cubic meters of recoverable gas. The size of the discovery makes it bigger news for Norway than for Royal Dutch Shell who found it, saying at the high end it's a pretty decent size and at the low end it's not that significant. Natural gas and the Nymex Arca Natural Gas Index fell significantly losing more than 5% on the day.


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Oil Down Again

Benchmark crude oil futures for July delivery close at $70.47 a barrel on Tuesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange down 15 cents on the session. It was the third straight day of declines for the commodity, however it's the first time since October oil futures have closed above $70 a barrel for an entire week. A weakening dollar helped to send gold and precious metals higher as well.


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Oil And Gas End Down On The Day

Oil and gas prices started the day slightly positive and then gave up gains. Natural Gas Futures gave up 1.4% to end at 3.693 per million BTUs. Crude oil for May lost 16 cents to finish at 49.25 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. This was despite a Goldman Sachs call that we could see a $200 per barrel oil super spike sometime late this summer or early fall.

Welcome to the Futures and Commodities Blog on blogger.com. Here you can find frequently updated market news and commentary on economic events with a specific focus on the futures contracts and the oil and precious metals markets. If I get bored I may also blog about food and textile futures markets. I also have blogs with focuses on the foreign exchange currency markets, stock market discussions and banking and credit market blogs. I hope you see some useful information that will help us all get through this financial crisis. So please follow this blog and I would love to read your comments and answer your questions.