Commodities Market: Oil Prices Slide as Traders Turn Bearish
U.S. oil prices are sliding as weak equities, logistical hiccups and ample global crude supplies prompt investors to pull back from the market.</br></br>Prices are down 8.7% after peaking at a nine-month high in June. On Friday, light, sweet crude for September delivery fell 29 cents, or 0.3%, to $97.88 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest closing price since Feb. 6.</br></br>A host of factors were at work, analysts and traders said, from logistical delays in the pipeline and refinery system that would damp demand for crude, to a lack of global supply problems despite violence in Iraq, Libya and Eastern Europe. Taken together, the factors resulted in traders cutting back on bets that prices would rise from the record levels reached in recent months.</br></br>"As time has gone by, speculators have decided they don't want to wait much longer for an actual impact on oil supply," said Mark Vonderheide, managing partner of trading firm Geneva Energy Markets.</br></br>Last week, a fire caused CVR Refining LP to shut down its 115,000-barrel-a-day refinery in Coffeyville, Kan., for repairs, the latest problem for U.S. crude. The refinery draws supply directly from the delivery point for the U.S. benchmark contract in Cushing, Okla., and the loss of demand resulting from the outage could arrest a monthslong trend of declining oil stocks at Cushing that has been a bullish driver in the market for most of this year.