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| Home Front: Economy |
| Oil price leaps as market casts nervous eye at Middle East |
| 2004-11-03 |
| NEW YORK : World crude oil prices jumped, fell and then soared again on a market rocked by speculation over the implications of President George W. Bush's electoral victory. New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in December, finished at $50.88 dollars a barrel, up $1.26 on the day, after plunging to a low of $48.65. Prices leapt in early trade as traders worried about Middle East tensions and energy policy under Bush, dipped on news of a surge in US commercial crude oil stockpiles, and then soared again on renewed post-election fears. "I believe the fluctuation in oil over the past few days has been tied to the election," said Wachovia market analyst Jason Schenker. "Last night there was a spike after it appeared a Bush win would be imminent," he said The crude oil inventories data exclude the 670.7-million-barrel US Strategic Petroleum Reserve, an emergency supply stored in huge underground salt caverns along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Adjusted for inflation, oil prices remain well below the levels reached in the wake of the 1979 Iranian revolution when prices surged beyond the equivalent of 80 dollars a barrel in today's money. |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |