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Oil price drops below $73

01 February 2010 08:55 (UTC +04:00)

Bakuâ€“ APA-Economics. Crude oil prices remained sluggish during Asian trading hours Monday, weighed by continued doubts about the prospects for a global oil demand recovery amid weaker regional equities and recent dollar strength, MarketWatch reported.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in March traded at $72.70 a barrel at 0622 GMT, down 19 cents in the Globex electronic session. Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange was 18 cents lower at $71.28 a barrel.
Although oil fundamentals have been weak for well over a year, crude prices have been underpinned by support from uptrending equities and a generally weaker dollar, but the Nymex front-month contract has fallen by more than $10 a barrel--around 12%--over the last three weeks as equities faltered and the dollar inched higher, amid concerns emerging over Chinese monetary policy and U.S. banking regulations.
A surprisingly large GDP growth number reported by the U.S. Friday failed to boost crude, in contrast with the effect reviving economic indicators, which helped fuel oil’s rally last year, have shown in the past.
Iran’s governor with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries Sunday said that he expected oil prices’ performance in the second half of this year to improve.
In the more immediate future, however, analysts predict a continued slide for crude prices, although some also see a buying opportunity at these levels.
Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for March--the benchmark gasoline contract--fell 45 points to 190.89 cents a gallon, while March heating oil traded 5 points higher at 191.35 cents. ICE gasoil for February was at $579.50 a metric ton, down $7.00 from Friday’s settlement.