Light, sweet oil prices initially gained in early trading on the New York market Sept. 4 but then retreated on dropping stock market values and on job statistics that indicated US employment during August was weaker than expected. US markets were closed Sept. 7 for US Labor Day holiday.
Analysts considered nonfarm payrolls to indicate a still-sluggish economy, which created pessimism about consumer demand going into the Federal Reserve’s meeting in September.
Nonfarm payrolls rose a seasonally adjusted 173,000 in August, but that still fell short of the 220,000 increase anticipated by economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal.
The October crude oil contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange dropped 70¢ to $46.05/bbl on Sept. 4 while the November crude oil contract declined 69¢ to $46.63/bbl.
The natural gas contract for October gave up 7¢ to a rounded $2.65/MMbtu. The Henry Hub, La., gas price held unchanged at $2.67/MMbtu.
Heating oil for October delivery declined 2¢ to a rounded $1.60/gal. The price for reformulated gasoline stock for oxygenates blending for October was down by about 1.9¢ to a rounded $1.42/gal.
The October ICE contract for Brent crude dropped $1.07 to $49.61/bbl, and the November contract was down $1.03 to $50.50/bbl. The ICE gas oil contract for September decreased $10.25 to $485/tonne.
The average price for the OPEC basket of 12 benchmark crudes decreased $1.24 to $45.56/bbl on Sept. 4.
Contact Paula Dittrick at [email protected].
*Paula Dittrick is editor of OGJ’s Unconventional Oil & Gas Report.
