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Pastimes : The Justa & Lars Honors Bob Brinker Investment Club -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Justa Werkenstiff who wrote (14636)	6/21/2000 6:39:00 PM
From: Justa Werkenstiff	Respond to of 15132

NYMEX crude ends sharply up despite OPEC output hike NEW YORK, June 21 (Reuters) - NYMEX crude oil futures finished with hefty gains Wednesday despite a decision by OPEC to increase output beginning July 1. Prices continued rising because the net effect of the 708,000 barrel per day (bpd) rise will actually be much lower as OPEC is already pumping more than 500,000 bpd above quotas set last March, analyst said. Non-OPEC producers Mexico and Norway are expected to also raise output, continuing their cooperation with OPEC begun twoyears ago to balance the market, but even so, this will not weigh heavily on prices, analysts said. NYMEX crude for August delivery settled at $31.37 a barrel, gaining 72 cents on the day. It jumped to a session high $31.95, surging $1.30 and setting a fresh contract high. It then trimmed gains on profit-taking before bouncing back in late trade. It traded as low as $30.61. Analysts said that while the knee-jerk reaction was for oil prices to soften, the market's outlook remains bullish . "Given the current strength of the supply/demand fundamentals, we continue to believe that tight oil market fundamentals will persist long-term," said CIBC World Markets analyst Bruce Lanni. Lanni said a recovery in global demand, lower than normal product inventories, limited spare capacity available to support higher output among OPEC members and a fairly small number of non-OPEC producers that can also raise output will keep the oil prices at higher levels. July gasoline settled 1.35 cents lower at $1.0391 a gallon, as the contract was sold off on crack spread play. It fell as low as $1.0250 and peaked at $1.056. July heating oil rose alongside crude, ending at 78.58 a gallon, up 2.45 cents. It traded between 76.50/79.30 cents. In London, August Brent crude last traded at $29.31, trimming gains to 31 cents on the day, firming behind OPEC's deal to raise production levels. U.S. crude oil inventories remain tight, having dropped to a 10-year low last week to 290.8 million barrels, nearly 40 million barrels below last year's level. A sharp drawdown of around 4.5 million barrels was behind the latest tightening, weekly inventory data from the American Petroleum Institute and the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed. Refineries had stepped up their operating rates by 1.1 percentage points to 95.4 percent of capacity to produce more gasoline as demand continued to rise just as the driving season has started. Gasoline inventories are also tight at 203.7 million barrels, down 18.2 million barrels from a year ago, despite a 357,000barrel increase last week, API data showed. Distillate stocks were drawn down by 508,00 barrels, but stocks are still tight at 103.7 million barrels, 17:56 06-21-00