MW: Oil choppy as bulls look for risk-inspired rebound
By William L. Watts, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Oil futures swung between small gains and losses after logging a third consecutive weekly decline, with some traders looking for a near-term rebound on ideas market participants are now underplaying geopolitical risks.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in August CLQ4 -0.22% fell 19 cents, or 0.2%, to $100.64 a barrel. August Brent crude UK:LCOQ4 +0.35% on London’s ICE Futures exchange rose 57 cents, or 0..6%, to $107.23 a barrel.
Oil futures tumbled last week on confirmation violence in Iraq has had little impact on the country’s oil output, while the Libyan government resumed control of a pair of oil terminals that had been occupied by rebels for several months.
Over the weekend, however, the Brega oil port in Libya’s east was shut by protesters, an oil official said, while Iraq’s parliament failed to agree on a new speaker, prolonging a political impasse.
“Given that the three-week drop has taken the price of Brent oil below the levels it was trading before the situation in Iraq caused it to spike, there’s a possibility that the selling may have been overdone and that some gains could be on the way, perhaps as early as this week,” said Fawad Razaqzada, analyst at Forex.com, in a note.
In energy products markets, August natural gas NGQ14 +0.43% fell 3 cents, or 0.7%, to $4.116 per million British thermal units. August gasoline futures RBQ4 +0.39% rose 1.24 cents, or 0.4%, to $2.9209 a gallon, while August heating oil HOQ4 -0.35% rose 1.5 cents, or 0.4%, to $2.8761 a gallon.
