America's LargestPosts Tagged commodities market
Amid Talk of Stricter Regulation of Oil Trades, Some Commodities Experts Defend Role of Speculators
Following the Commodities Futures Trading Commission’s announcement that it intends to tighten regulations on oil speculation, the effect of speculators on oil prices is a hot a news topic as ever.
Many have called speculators the cause of the extreme volatility of oil prices. Opponents of commodities regulation say this isn’t so, and argue that regulation [...]
With Oil Prices Falling, Signs Point to Long-Term Decline
Will the recent downturn in oil prices last? Signs are pointing to yes, according to Liam Denning’s analysis that appeared in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal.
Last Tuesday, crude oil traded at slightly above $73 per barrel; on Wednesday, a barrel cost $60. In just nine days, the price of the world’s most important commodity fell [...]
NYMEX Oil Trader Predicts Lower Prices for Remainder of 2009
Many prognosticators expect the price of oil to rise over the rest of the year. This makes sense, as demand for crude will most likely rise if and when the economy picks back up.
However, NYMEX trader Ray Carbone sees it differently. On Wednesday, when interviewed on CNBC, Carbone said that he expects that oil prices [...]
Oil Prices Drop Despite Supportive News
At 9:32 am EDT, the price of crude had lost 0.7 percent to $69.77 and the price of heating oil had dropped by 1.1 percent.
HEAT USA Price Report
Today’s average retail heating oil price per gallon: UP $0.05
Morning projection (for Monday’s average retail price per gallon): UP $0.03
Oil prices continued on an unusual and erratic [...]
Oil Market Advantage Shifts from Speculators to Physical Traders
To grossly over simplify things, there are two ways to trade oil. You can actually move oil, or you can move pieces of paper—contracts—for oil without ever taking delivery of crude. Oil companies and oil trading companies, such as BP, Vital, Trafigura, or Hess, move oil. Banks and hedge funds mostly move contracts, speculating (or [...]
Read More »Obama Admin Ready to Put Limits on Oil Speculation
The Obama administration has taken steps to limit oil speculation as part of its overhaul of the financial system in the wake of 2008’s financial meltdown, the McClatchy Company reported yesterday. While some of the administration’s plans will require legislation, and so are a work in progress, other steps can be taken immediately by executive [...]
Read More »Euro-Priced Oil? Belgian Entrepenuer Hopes So
The dollar has long been the world’s most important currency for commodity traders, especially those who focus on crude and heating oil. And as the dollar goes, so goes the price of oil. If the dollar falls, oil producers raise prices; it’s generally estimated that a 1 percent decline in the value of the dollar [...]
Read More »Another Take on Oil Speculation
Last week’s edition of HEAT This Week explained the role of speculators in the oil markets and offered two different points of view on how responsible they were for the extreme volatility of oil prices from June until December of last year. A 60 Minutes story and an OPEC spokesman agreed that the surge [...]
Read More »Speculators Make Their Mark on the Oil Market
Speculators in the oil markets are frequently labeled as the “bad guys” that caused extreme volatility on the crude market over the last year. Who are these speculators and what are they doing to affect the price of oil? Are they really to blame for the huge price swings seen in 2008?
Speculators are [...]
60 Minutes Makes Strong Case that Speculators Caused 2008 Spike in Oil Prices
Last summer’s historic high prices for oil on the commodities market caused turmoil throughout the U.S. From drivers paying all-time highs for gasoline to heating oil customers locking in prices that they now regret, every American was affected. Now that oil prices are sinking to new lows, more attention is being focused on what caused [...]
Read More »Where Are Oil Prices Going in 2009?
As 2008 draws to a close, traders and analysts on the on the oil markets are happy to see it go. The price of crude oil fell 54% from its peak in July, the largest annual decline since 1983, as a global economic crisis sapped fuel demand and froze lines of credit.
So what is in [...]
Heating Oil Prices vs. Gasoline Prices: What’s the difference?
A HEAT USA member recently contacted us with a great question: “I have always wondered why the price of heating [oil] is more than regular gasoline, when there are no taxes on it.” Actually, it is more of a statement, but still an interesting subject to wonder about.
It is logical to think that, since [...]
Why Does Your Heating Oil Price Change Every Day?
At HEAT USA, a common question we receive from members and non-members alike is, “What’s the price of heating oil today?” As we always explain, the price of heating oil depends where you live, who your supplier is, whether or not you are a member of HEAT, and many other big-picture factors. What [...]
Read More »Bailout Bill Details Fail to Inspire Market Confidence
Commodities prices fell along with the stock market in early trading on Monday. As the details of an eleventh-hour deal on the government bailout bill for the financial sector emerged, traders seemed to doubt that the bill, if it does pass a Monday vote in Congress, would provide adequate measures to avert a forthcoming economic [...]
Read More »Crude Oil Prices Continue on Yo-Yo Trajectory
After a record breaking one-day gain on Monday, a big drop-off on Tuesday, and a small loss on Wednesday, Crude oil prices rose modestly on Thursday, ending just shy of $108 a barrel, as reported by CNNmoney and wsj.com. Stocks rose and the dollar strengthened as traders showed optimism that the $700 billion government bailout [...]
Read More »Federal Regulators to Investigate Price Fluctuations UPDATE
The New York Times reported this morning that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has issued subpoenas in its investigation of possible illicit manipulations that may have caused the unprecedented jump in crude oil prices on Monday. The subpoenas were issued for trading records from several oil trading companies involved in trades on the crude oil [...]
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