الرئيسية
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, AP
NEW YORK (AP) — Oil rose Friday after a see-sawing session in
post-holiday, low-volume trading, but was down slightly for the week.
The
benchmark for crude oil in the U.S. rose 60 cents to settle at $96.77 a
barrel. It dropped $1.84 on Wednesday, before markets in the U.S. were
closed for the Thanksgiving holiday. On the week, however, oil lost 0.7
percent.
Oil had fallen earlier as Europe's debt crisis continues to undermine confidence the continent will avoid recession next year.
In London, Brent crude for January delivery fell $1.38 to settle at $106.40 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
Investor
concern that fiscal austerity measures aimed at lowering Europe's debt
levels will hurt global economic growth and oil demand has helped pull
crude back from above $103 last week.
Uncertainty about contagion
spreading from Greece to Portugal, Italy, Spain and Ireland has begun
to undermine confidence in Germany and France. The yield on Germany's
10-year bond rose above the 10-year UK government bond for the first
time since 2009. And on Friday Standard & Poor's downgraded
Belgium's financial standing, citing the country's government stalemate
and the looming European recession.
"The eurozone sovereign
crisis is starting to threaten the bond markets of even the most solid
European economy — Germany," Barclays Capital said in a report.
In
the U.S., meanwhile, the average price for a gallon of gas has fallen
to $3.31 (87 cents a liter) from $3.38 in just a week. The discount is
an even heftier 20 cents a gallon (3.8 liters) compared with two months
ago. In fact, American shoppers driving from store to store on the first
weekend of the holiday shopping season are paying some of the lowest
prices for gas since late winter.
Even with the recent declines,
however, the price of gas is 44 cents a gallon higher than on Black
Friday a year ago. Tom Kloza, chief oil analysts at Oil Price
Information Service, says Americans are on track to spend $488 billion
on gas this year. That will eclipse the record set in 2008 by $40
billion. OPIS said last week that U.S. households have spent 8.4 percent
of their income on gasoline this year, up from 6.7 percent in 2010 and
7.9 percent in 2008.
The national average for gasoline peaked just below $4 a gallon ($1.05 a liter) in May.
That
may be one reason that malls are bustling this year with shoppers
looking marked down cashmere sweaters, videogame consoles, tablet
computers and flat-screen televisions. Retailers hope shoppers reinvest
their savings at the pump. Kloza estimates that, at current demand, for
every 10 cent decline in the price of gas, Americans save a total of $36
million to spend elsewhere.
Kloza says current demand for gas in
the U.S. remains "extraordinarily poor." That's the main reason why gas
prices are dropping even though oil has risen about $17 a barrel, or 21
percent, in the last two months.
In other Nymex trading, heating
oil dropped 3.1 cents to $2.94 per gallon and gasoline futures lost
4.45 cents to $2.5205 per gallon. Natural gas added 5.7 cents to $3.665
per 1,000 cubic feet.
NEW YORK (AP) — Oil rose Friday after a see-sawing session in
post-holiday, low-volume trading, but was down slightly for the week.
The
benchmark for crude oil in the U.S. rose 60 cents to settle at $96.77 a
barrel. It dropped $1.84 on Wednesday, before markets in the U.S. were
closed for the Thanksgiving holiday. On the week, however, oil lost 0.7
percent.
Oil had fallen earlier as Europe's debt crisis continues to undermine confidence the continent will avoid recession next year.
In London, Brent crude for January delivery fell $1.38 to settle at $106.40 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
Investor
concern that fiscal austerity measures aimed at lowering Europe's debt
levels will hurt global economic growth and oil demand has helped pull
crude back from above $103 last week.
Uncertainty about contagion
spreading from Greece to Portugal, Italy, Spain and Ireland has begun
to undermine confidence in Germany and France. The yield on Germany's
10-year bond rose above the 10-year UK government bond for the first
time since 2009. And on Friday Standard & Poor's downgraded
Belgium's financial standing, citing the country's government stalemate
and the looming European recession.
"The eurozone sovereign
crisis is starting to threaten the bond markets of even the most solid
European economy — Germany," Barclays Capital said in a report.
In
the U.S., meanwhile, the average price for a gallon of gas has fallen
to $3.31 (87 cents a liter) from $3.38 in just a week. The discount is
an even heftier 20 cents a gallon (3.8 liters) compared with two months
ago. In fact, American shoppers driving from store to store on the first
weekend of the holiday shopping season are paying some of the lowest
prices for gas since late winter.
Even with the recent declines,
however, the price of gas is 44 cents a gallon higher than on Black
Friday a year ago. Tom Kloza, chief oil analysts at Oil Price
Information Service, says Americans are on track to spend $488 billion
on gas this year. That will eclipse the record set in 2008 by $40
billion. OPIS said last week that U.S. households have spent 8.4 percent
of their income on gasoline this year, up from 6.7 percent in 2010 and
7.9 percent in 2008.
The national average for gasoline peaked just below $4 a gallon ($1.05 a liter) in May.
That
may be one reason that malls are bustling this year with shoppers
looking marked down cashmere sweaters, videogame consoles, tablet
computers and flat-screen televisions. Retailers hope shoppers reinvest
their savings at the pump. Kloza estimates that, at current demand, for
every 10 cent decline in the price of gas, Americans save a total of $36
million to spend elsewhere.
Kloza says current demand for gas in
the U.S. remains "extraordinarily poor." That's the main reason why gas
prices are dropping even though oil has risen about $17 a barrel, or 21
percent, in the last two months.
In other Nymex trading, heating
oil dropped 3.1 cents to $2.94 per gallon and gasoline futures lost
4.45 cents to $2.5205 per gallon. Natural gas added 5.7 cents to $3.665
per 1,000 cubic feet.