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Technology Stocks : Applied Materials No-Politics Thread (AMAT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: BWAC who wrote (14938)	5/12/2005 12:00:53 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 25522

Oil Prices Drop Below $49 a Barrel Mark Thursday May 12, 11:46 am ET By Brad Foss, AP Business Writer Oil Prices Drop Below $49 a Barrel Mark After Data Shows Crude Supplies Rising in U.S. WASHINGTON (AP) -- Oil prices dipped below $49 a barrel Thursday as the market dropped sharply for the second straight day following the release of new data that show crude supplies rising in the United States and demand growth slowing in China. Light sweet crude for June delivery fell $1.85 in midday trade to $48.60 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, where futures prices for gasoline and heating oil also declined. Crude futures fell by $1.62 on Wednesday. A barrel of oil is now roughly 20 percent more expensive than it was a year ago. Crude oil futures surpassed $58 a barrel in early April but retreated in the face of steadily rising commercial inventories in the United States. Refiners are stocking up on barrels ahead of summer, when motor fuel demand tends to pick up. The decline in oil prices has begun to trickle through at the pump. The average price nationwide is now $2.19 a gallon, down from the high a few weeks ago of $2.28. While the Energy Department recently lowered its summer gasoline price forecast, analysts said the market remains volatile and that it was too soon to declare the worst is over. "The market is under some pressure," said Tom Bentz, a broker at BNP Paribas Commodity Futures in New York. "But there's still a chance that we have not seen a top yet." Nymex gasoline futures fell 3.6 cents to $1.446 per gallon. Heating oil futures dropped by a penny to $1.393 per gallon. On London's International Petroleum Exchange, June Brent fell 99 cents to trade at $49.08 a barrel. The U.S. Energy Department said Wednesday that domestic crude inventories grew by 2.7 million barrels last week to 329.7 million barrels, or 10 percent above year-ago levels. The Paris-based International Energy Agency said that Chinese oil demand rose by 4.5 percent in the first quarter, compared with a 19.3 percent year-on-year jump in the first three months of 2004. "There is less tightness in the market now that global demand is falling, especially in China and the U.S.," said Frederic Laserre, an analyst with SG Securities in Paris. The IEA also said it expects OPEC and other producers to meet peak demand in the fourth quarter -- a period of time that some analysts are worried about. It warned that spare output capacity would remain thin, however, meaning markets should remain jittery about potential supply bottlenecks or unexpected disruptions.