NYMEX crude fails to hold $60/barrel as dollar consolidates

New York (Platts)--27Nov2006

NYMEX December crude futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange's Globex
system were 42 cents higher at $59.66/barrel Monday, having failed to maintain
price strength above the $60/barrel level.
The market rallied above $60/barrel level Friday when US oil markets were
closed for the extended holiday weekend and the US Dollar Index on the New
York Board of Trade skidded to an eight-month low.
"The US dollar has recouped much of its overnight losses after setting
new lows for the year vs. the euro and pound and a new four-month low vs. the
yen," foreign exchange analysts at Brown Brothers Harriman said in a report.
"The market remains wary of a further dollar fall after last week's
momentum-driven sell-off and ahead of this week's US data releases (durable
goods, housing and personal consumption expenditure data are expected to be
soft," they added.
The crude market was able to rise despite last week's 5.1 million barrel
build in US commercial crude inventories reported by the Energy Information
Administration.
"The upside will be capped by comfortable inventories, slowing US
economic growth, and of course, the real possibility that [OPEC] will come up
short once again between what it says and what it does," Ed Meir of Man
Financial said in a report.
--Linda Rafield, linda_rafield@platts.com

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