Market News
WTI Drops on Concern U.S. Shutdown May Curb Fuel Demand
West Texas Intermediate fell from its highest settlement in almost two weeks as the U.S. government’s partial shutdown fanned concern that economic growth may slow.
Futures slid as much as 0.6 percent in New York. Talks between President Barack Obama and U.S. congressional leaders
yesterday failed to break the budget logjam as the partial
government closure entered its third day. WTI jumped
2 percent yesterday to the highest level since Sept. 20
after TransCanada Corp. said it expects to complete work on the southern portion of its Keystone pipeline expansion by the end of October.
Oil
has been under pressure with the gloomy economic picture, and
in the past few trading sessions with the U.S. government shutdown, which may slow oil demand
.
WTI for November delivery dropped as much as 65 cents to
$103.45 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was at $103.69 as of 1:22 p.m. London time. The contract yesterday advanced to $104.10 in the first gain in four days. The volume of all futures traded was about 2 percent below the 100 day average. Brent for November settlement fell as much as 49 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $108.70 a barrel on the London
based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The European benchmark was at a premium of $5
.82 to WTI, up from $5.09 yesterday, the least since Sept. 23. U.S. crude inventories
climbed by 5.5 million barrels last week, data from the Energy Information Administration
yesterday showed. They were forecast to rise by 2.5 million in a Bloomberg News survey.
