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Strategies & Market Trends : The Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: yossarian67 who wrote (36233)	3/8/2001 4:08:13 PM
From: JeanD	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 49816

and what fun, it's 4pm. Time for the warnings to start flowing in.

To: yossarian67 who wrote (36233)	3/8/2001 4:08:39 PM
From: 2MAR$	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 49816

U.S. oil falls as traders await OPEC supply cuts By Matthew Robinson NEW YORK, March 8 (Reuters) - U.S. oil prices fell sharply Thursday despite expectations that cartel OPEC will trim output for the second time this year at its ministerial meeting next week. April crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) settled at $28.39 a barrel, down 61 cents as late profit taking cut through earlier gains. The move eased recent gains made on signs that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will curb supply at its March 16 meeting to stop prices falling when winter demand tails off in major consuming nations. Venezuelan Oil Minister Alvaro Silva said Thursday the cartel would attempt to keep prices on par with last year's levels, when U.S. crude prices averaged a 17-year high of $30.20. "We, OPEC, prefer a price of oil above $25 a barrel. Over $25 has not produced problems in the world economy," he said on the sidelines of a conference of energy ministers of the Americas in Mexico City. The cartel trimmed output by 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) from February 1 in an effort to keep a price range of $22-28 a barrel for its basket of crudes, which is usually around four dollars below U.S. crude. OPEC ministers are considering cuts of between 500,000 to one million bpd as they attempt to keep revenues high without upsetting the world economy. Silva confirmed Thursday he will meet with Saudi Arabian counterpart Ali al-Naimi on March 12, ahead of next Friday's formal OPEC meeting. Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, along with non-OPEC producer Mexico orchestrated output cuts in 1998 and 1999 that sent prices from under $10 a barrel to over $30 a barrel last year. Keen to strengthen ties with the United States, Mexico has signalled that this time it would not join in any OPEC cutbacks, insisting oil exporters need not reduce supply now because global supply and demand are in balance. Analysts expect OPEC to cut as the group fears that stocks of stored crude and products could quickly build up in the second quarter of this year -- especially if a weakening U.S. economy slows oil demand. Deutche Banc Alex. Brown bank estimates that stocks will build during the second quarter of 2001 if OPEC cuts a full one million bpd next week. Yet U.S. oil supplies are still as tight as they have been for two decades with new supply data this week showing oil inventories in the U.S. have fallen to their lowest level since 1976. U.S. crude stocks are now barely two percent above the 270 million barrel level that the National Petroleum Council says is needed for the U.S. oil system to work smoothly.