Wall Street rallies as oil prices trade below $130 per barrel

Oil prices drop below 130 USD

www.chinaview.cn 2008-07-18 04:20:16

NEW YORK, July 17 (Xinhua) --

Oil prices continued to slide and closed below 130 U.S. dollars a barrel for the first time in more than a month on Thursday on growing concerns about the health of U.S. economy.

Light, sweet crude for August delivery tumbled 5.31 dollars to settle at 129.29 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices have fallen more than 15 dollars in the past three trading sessions.

The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that crude oil stockpiles jumped by 3 million barrels and natural gas inventories rose by 104 billion cubic feet last week. The unexpected increase prompted the large sell-off as the investors are concerned that the high energy prices have curtailed the demand.

Crude oil has also been pressured from the growing concerns on the inflation risk and the weak U.S. economy. The U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told the Congress that "numerous difficulties" represent "significant downside risks" to economic growth.

The energy market mood remained bearish Thursday despite the reports of an explosion in the south oil region of Nigeria, Africa's largest oil exporter, which weighed little on the price.

In London, Brent crude for September delivery dropped 4.74 dollars to settle at 131.07 dollars a barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange.

Wall Street rallies as oil prices trade below 130 USD

www.chinaview.cn 2008-07-18 04:19:33

NEW YORK, July 17 (Xinhua) --

Wall Street continued its rally Thursday as oil prices traded below 130 U.S. dollars a barrel. The Dow Jones average rose more than 200 points.

Crude prices plunged more than 5 dollars to settle at 129.29 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on concerns of U.S. economic woes.

Upbeat earnings from big names like Coca-Cola, JPMorgan Chase and United Technologies also boosted the stocks although investors were still nervous about the health of the U.S. economy.

JPmorgan advanced for a second day trading after its results beat estimates by 10 cents a share. Its earnings indicated that investors perhaps had at times been overly dour in their assessment of financials.

Moreover, the U.S. Commerce Department reported that construction of homes and apartments rose in June by 9.1 percent. The gain boosted the market, as economists had expected a 1.5 percent decline.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 207.38 points to settle at 11,446.66. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was up 14.95 to 1,260.31 and the Nasdaq rose 27.45 to 2,312.30.

Editor: Yan Liang

Dollar trades mixed on economic data, lower oil prices

www.chinaview.cn 2008-07-18 05:34:25

NEW YORK, July 17 (Xinhua) --

The dollar was mixed against major currencies on Thursday as oil prices fell below 130 U.S. dollars a barrel and U.S. economic data delivered a mixed picture.

Light, sweet crude for August delivery dropped 5.31 dollars to settle at 129.29 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices have fallen nearly 16 dollars in just the past three days.

The dollar was also bolstered after the U.S. Labor Department reported that the number of newly laid-off people signing up for jobless benefits rose by 18,000 last week to 366,000, below the number that economists had expected.

A Commerce Department report showed that house construction jumped in June by 9.1 percent. But it would have been down 4 percent except for the actions of New York City builders who sped up multi-family projects before new construction rules took hold on July 1.

Single-family homes construction fell 5.3 percent to the slowest pace for singe-family activity since January 1991.

The euro bought 1.5820 dollars in late New York trading compared with 1.5810 dollars it bought late Wednesday. The British pound was unchanged at 1.9992.

The dollar rose to 1.0231 Swiss francs from 1.0179 Swiss francs, and rose to 106.69 Japanese yen from 104.93 Japanese yen. It rose to 1.0068 Canadian dollars from 1.0019 Canadian dollars.

Editor: Yan Liang

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