Oil Prices Fall on Jobless Claims, API Data

As of 8:52 am EST, the price of crude had dropped by 0.8 percent to reach $76.68 a barrel and the price of heating oil had declined by 1.1 percent.

HEAT USA Price Report

Today’s average retail heating oil price per gallon: Up $0.01
Morning projection (for Friday’s average price per gallon): Down $0.04

An increase in the number of new applications for unemployment showed that the US economy is still faltering, and investors turned to the relatively safe haven of the dollar, strengthening the dollar and pushing oil prices down. As the value of the dollar increases, dollar-priced commodities become more expensive for traders who hold other currencies, dragging down demand and prices. The API’s inventory report further weighed on oil prices since it showed a 1.5-million-barrel increase in distillate inventories, which include heating oil and diesel, despite last week’s cold weather in the Northeast.

HEAT USA price experts report that the EIA’s inventory report, usually considered more authoritative than the API numbers, will be released later this morning. If the data show significant drawdowns in oil supplies, then oil prices could rise, but it would have to overcome economic data and currency markets that are pushing down oil prices.