Oil Prices Fall on Strengthening Dollar

At 8:55 am EDT, the price of crude had fallen by 1.3 percent to $67.53 a barrel and the price of heating oil had lost 1.1 percent.

HEAT USA Price Report
Today’s average retail heating oil price per gallon: DOWN $0.01
Morning projection (for Tuesday’s average retail price per gallon): DOWN $0.02

Oil prices continued to retreat from seven-month highs reached last week as the value of the US dollar increased against other currencies.  The dollar gained as hopes of soon-to-come economic recovery spread to financial markets and raised expectations of higher interest rates.  A more valuable US dollar makes oil and other commodities more expensive and therefore less attractive to foreign investors.

HEAT USA price experts reported a larger decline in heating oil prices than previously expected, and predicted that crude prices would stay close to $65 a barrel for the next week or two.