Oil Prices Climb on G20 Meeting, Stock Market Rallies

The meeting in London of leaders of the word’s 19 largest national economies and the European Union spurred optimism that new initiatives agreed upon at the summit would start the world economy on the road to recovery.  The optimism brought about major gains in world stock markets, which in turn led to big increases in oil prices.  A weakening dollar also contributed to higher oil prices.  As of 9:00 am EDT, the price of crude had gained 5.9 percent to reach $51.22 a barrel and the price of heating oil had gained 4.4 percent.

Fundamental market forces remain strongly bearish on oil, with the head of the IEA Nobuo Tanaka saying today that the agency may make another downward revision to its 2009 forecast of global oil demand.  In the US, analysts polled by Reuters expected a decrease of 650,000 jobs on non-farm payrolls in March, on par with the 651,000 non-farm jobs lost in February.  Non-farm payroll data will be released later today.

HEAT USA price experts confirmed their prediction of a modest decrease in retail heating oil prices today, and expected another dip in market prices to take place early next week.

HEAT USA Price Report
Today’s average retail heating oil price per gallon: DOWN $0.005 to $0.02
Morning projection (for Friday’s average retail price per gallon): UP $0.04