Saratoga Resources, Inc. (fka SARA)

[momentum74]

SARA 1.02 Article. Oil tops $100 a barrel on strong demand.


http://www.marketwatch.com/story/oil-futures-slip-before-monthly-us-jobs-report-2014-02-07?link=MW_pulse


Oil briefly tops $100, gains 2.5% on week

’Risk-on rally’ for oil as U.S. equities jump; natural-gas prices fall for a third day



By Myra P. Saefong and Victor Reklaitis, MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Oil futures rallied on Friday, tacking on nearly 3% for the week after briefly topping $100 a barrel shortly before the close of the trading session on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Prices found support from a rally in U.S. equities and a climb in heating-oil and gasoline futures as analysts suggested there was plenty of strong data lingering beneath the surface of the U.S. jobs report, offering hope for a better outlook on oil demand.

Natural-gas futures, meanwhile, extended their losses to a third-consecutive trading session.

March crude oil CLH4 +2.35% climbed $2.04, or 2.1%, to settle at $99.88 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures prices saw a gain of 2.5% from their $97.49 close last Friday.

According to FactSet data tracking the most-active contracts, futures prices marked their highest close since Dec. 27. Prices had briefly touched a high of $100.06 in the last few minutes before the Nymex close.



Reuters

“Oil looks like a risk-on rally,” said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group, attributing oil’s hefty gains to the big rally in stocks traded on Wall Street.

Prices for petroleum products led the percentage gains on Nymex, “with current physical tightness as a support for heating oil, and improving seasonal prospects for gasoline in the months ahead as the fundamental backing for the gains,” said Tim Evans, energy analyst at Citi Futures.

March gasoline RBH4 +2.28% closed up nearly 7 cents, or 2.5%, at $2.75 a gallon, up 4.5% for the week. March heating oil HOH4 +1.70% picked almost 6 cents, or 1.8%, to end at $3.05 a gallon, tacking on about 1.8% for the week.

The spring refinery maintenance period typically begins in February, reducing production capacity for petroleum products.

The good and the bad

Oil traders also assessed the much-anticipated U.S. employment report. The U.S. economy added 113,000 jobs in January, below the 190,000-jobs threshold that economists polled by MarketWatch were expecting but the unemployment rate fell to 6.6% from 6.7%, matching forecasts.

“Outside of the disappointment on the headline payroll front, and especially the weak performance in service-sector employment, the underlying guts of this employment report were unusually strong,” said Millan Mulraine, deputy head of U.S. research and strategy at TD Securities, in a note.

“The report showed broad-based improvement in a variety of ancillary labor market indicators — pointing to a reduction in labor market slack,” he added.

Crude dropped to around $97.11 a barrel after the jobs report before bouncing back as traders weighed the prospects for oil demand.

On ICE Futures, Brent crude oil, the European benchmark, saw its March contract UK:LCOH4 +2.28% jump $2.38, or 2.2%, to $109.57 a barrel, with prices gaining around 3% for the week.