Oil Price $$$
Not unexpected--with the falling dollar, $115 doesn't buy what it used to.
Moming Zhou:
Crude-oil inventories contract, with oil spiking to new highs - MarketWatch: SCrude-oil inventories made a surprise drop for the second week, the Energy Department said Wednesday, as weaker demand failed to translate into higher boost U.S. stockpiles. The report pushed oil prices to another new high. The nation's crude inventories fell to 313.7 million barrels, down 2.3 million barrels, in the week ended April 11, said the Energy Information Administration, a statistical arm of the Energy Department. Analysts surveyed by energy information provider Platts had been expecting an increase of 1.5 million barrels. Energy traders quickly pushed the benchmark crude contract to a new record high above $115 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. See Futures Movers....
This past week was the second time that crude inventories ran counter to market expectations. Last Wednesday's EIA report showed the nation's stockpiles of crude fell 3.2 million barrels to 316 million barrels in the week ended April 4. U.S. crude inventories thus have dropped about 5 million barrels in the past two weeks. The U.S. is the world's top oil consumer, absorbing about a quarter of the 86 million barrels the world produces every day.... Petroleos Mexicanos, the country's state-owned oil giant, shut its export terminal Monday. With another closing on Tuesday, five terminals were closed. But refiners also played a role in reducing oil imports, said Williams. U.S. refiners were running at 81.4% of their operable capacity last week, the lowest in nearly 30 months...
