logo-loader

Oil prices extend gains after non-farm payrolls

Published: 15:42 07 Oct 2011 BST

no_picture_pai

Oil prices extended gains today following a strong two-day run after today’s non-farm payrolls report revealed that the US economy added double the expected number of jobs last month, suggesting that the US economy is in better shape than thought.

The data from the Department of Labor revealed an increase of 103,000 in payrolls for September, while analysts polled by Bloomberg expected to see a gain of 59,000.

Equity and commodity markets rallied on the update with US benchmark crude reaching US$84 per barrel, up US$6 from Tuesday's close.

The surge in oil prices started on Wednesday when official data from the US government revealed a massive drop of 4.7 million barrels in US crude stockpiles for the previous week, a sign that energy demand in the US was on the rise.

In addition to that, oil prices benefitted from weakness in the US dollar, which dropped after today’s upbeat jobs report reduced demand for safe haven assets, including the greenback.

The decline in the US dollar made the dollar-denominated crude cheaper for holders of other currencies, lifting demand.

US light, sweet crude for November delivery, currently the most actively traded contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), rose 80 cents to US$83.39/barrel in morning trade in New York.

November Brent crude added 19 cents to reach US$105.94/barrel on the ICE Exchange this afternoon.

Today’s top risers in the oil and gas sector were:

Petroceltic International (LON:PCI), up 14 percent at 5.17 pence at midday

Tower Resources (LON:TRP), up 11.5 percent at 3.31 pence

Forum Energy (LON:FEP), up 9 percent at 49.5 pence

Amerisur Resources (LON:AMER), up 8.5 percent at 11.12 pence

Oilex (LON:OEX), up 8.5 percent at 14.35 pence

The top fallers were:

Woburn Energy (LON:WBN)
, down 11 percent at 1 pence at midday

Urals Energy (LON:UEN), down 5.5 percent at 6.6 pence

Gasol (LON:GAS), down 5.5 percent at 0.556 pence

San Leon Energy (LON:SLE), down 5 percent at 14.75 pence

Global Petroleum (LON:GBP)
, down 4 percent at 12 pence

Chesnara reports strong 2023 results with improved cash generation and...

Chesnara PLC (LSE:CSN) chief executive Steve Murray discusses the company's full-year results for 2023 with Proactive's Stephen Gunnion, describing them as strong and particularly highlighting £53 million in commercial cash generation and a dividend coverage of around 150%. The company has...

31 minutes ago