Oil Prices Sink on Strong Dollar, Weak Economy

Oil prices closed substantially lower today, as they were unable to recover from this morning’s losses that were inflicted by a more valuable dollar and persistent fears that economic recovery is not coming anytime soon.  The May crude contract expires on NYMEX tomorrow, which also pushed down prices as traders looked to unload expiring contracts to avoid crude delivery.

The price of crude dropped 8.8 percent today to close at $45.92 a barrel.  The price of heating oil lost 6.3 percent.

HEAT USA Price Experts were pleased to see that the morning’s price drops held on throughout the day, and predicted a larger decrease in retail prices than they originally thought.

HEAT USA Price Report
Evening projection (for Tuesday’s average retail heating oil price per gallon): DOWN $0.08 to $0.09