Oil fluctuated as the dollar strengthened against the euro after the U.S. jobless rate fell to a four-year low in November.
Futures swung between gains and losses after the Labor Department said unemployment dropped to 7.7 percent, the least since 2008. The dollar reached the highest level in two weeks against the euro. Saudi Arabia is content with prices and the market is well supplied, Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said five days before OPEC ministers meet to discuss production.
?This has kind of got everybody caught off guard a little bit as the unemployment rate drops to 7.7 percent, and the knee-jerk reaction is to get out of short positions,? said Rich Ilczyszyn, chief market strategist and founder of Iitrader.com in Chicago. ?The dollar is adding pressure to oil.?
Crude for January delivery decreased 8 cents to $86.18 a barrel at 11:21 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices are down 3.1 percent this week and 13 percent this year.
Brent for January settlement fell 2 cents to $107.01 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange.
Earlier, oil gained as much as 0.8 percent as the Labor Department reported employment in the U.S., the world?s biggest oil-consuming country, climbed by 146,000. That followed a revised 138,000 gain in October that was less than initially estimated. The median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for an increase of 85,000.
The jobless rate was forecast to hold at 7.9 percent on concern Hurricane Sandy hindered jobs growth, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Sandy ?did not substantively impact? the data, the department said.
?Friday?s employment report was significantly better than consensus expectations,? said Jason Schenker, president of Prestige Economics LLC, an Austin, Texas-based energy consultant, in emailed comments. ?There were some negatives in the report, however, including a drop in the labor force participation rate, as well as downward revisions.?
Prices erased gains as the dollar advanced as much as 0.7 percent against the euro. The currency touched $1.2877, the highest since Nov. 23. A stronger dollar and weaker euro reduce oil?s appeal as an investment alternative.
The dollar got a boost from the jobs report as the euro fell after the Bundesbank cut its 2013 projection for the German economy, Europe?s largest, to 0.4 percent from the 1.6 percent predicted in June.
The European Central Bank reduced its euro-area growth forecasts Thursday. A majority of ECB policy makers were open to cutting the benchmark rate and there is a possibility of a reduction early next year if the economy doesn?t pick up, three officials with knowledge of the Governing Council?s deliberations said.
?There is just some worry about global demand for oil based on those downgrades of GDP forecasts,? said Tom Pawlicki, director of market research at Chicago-based commodities trading firm EOXLive. ?The GDP forecast cut is negative for the euro and negative for commodities because of the stronger dollar.?
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will probably leave its group production quota unchanged when ministers meet on Dec. 12 in Vienna, according to a Bloomberg survey of 18 analysts.
?The prices are fine and customers are happy,? Naimi said in Doha, where he has been attending an international conference on climate change.
katie couric barista university of kentucky ncaa oakland news alec baldwin alec baldwin
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.