Friday's Commodities Roundup
Friday June 24, 5:16 pm ET
Dow Jones News Service, Via The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) -- Crude oil futures for August delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange gained 42 cents to close at $59.84 a barrel, a new settlement high for a front-month contract.
The contract briefly touched the $60-a-barrel mark for a second day in a row without breaching it.
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"It was a very light, choppy day, but overall a bullish close for crude on a daily and weekly basis," said Tom Bentz, an analyst at BNP Paribas Futures.
With bullish momentum growing, $60 oil is a minor political event or a refinery snag away, said Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch & Associates, a Galena, Ill., consultancy.
"It doesn't take that much to spur a strong price action," Ritterbusch said.
Petroleum products futures also ended in negative territory.
The July gasoline futures contract fell 0.10 cent to close at $1.6557 a gallon after falling as low as $1.6370 intraday. July heating oil futures lost 2.52 cents to $1.6504 a gallon.
The oil rally was fueled by worries that refiners will have a tough time keeping up with rising oil demand because of limited processing capacity.
Fueled by strong economic growth in the United States and China, the world's two largest oil consuming nations, world oil consumption has been rising at a robust pace, testing producers' and refiners' ability to make enough petroleum products such as gasoline and heating oil.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the cartel responsible for more than one-third of world oil production, is pumping almost flat out in an effort to allow inventories in consuming countries to grow ahead of the winter.
Crude oil inventories have grown to above historic levels, but prices have continued to rise because the increased OPEC production has cut into the group's spare capacity, leaving the market with little cushion against possible supply disruptions.
Analysts also point out that whatever extra barrels OPEC can produce are in heavy grades that aren't in high demand by refiners because they're hard to process.
OPEC, which earlier this month raised its official production ceiling by 500,000 barrels a day to 28 million barrels a day, is expected to discuss the possibility of a second quota hike this weekend.
"A lot of people just don't believe OPEC can increase output," said analyst Kyle Cooper of Citigroup in Houston.
July natural gas fell 1.13 cent to close at $7.360 per million British thermal units.
Gold futures finished modestly lower in New York Friday, while silver was little changed.
Spot gold in New York fell 80 cents to $440.00 an ounce.
August gold settled at $442 an ounce, down $1.20.
July silver settled at $7.28 an ounce, up 0.7 cent.
The July copper contract settled up 1.05 cent at $1.5930 per pound. The more-active September contract rose 2.30 cents to $1.5505 per pound.
Arabica coffee futures dropped to five-month lows on the New York Board of Trade. The July contract settled 2.95 cents lower at $1.0545 a pound, and September closed down 2.95 cents at $1.0850 a pound.
Most-active September cocoa settled $48 lower at $1,531 a metric ton and July cocoa was down $48 at $1,517 a metric ton.
World raw sugar futures ended lower. July sugar settled down 0.07 cent at 8.97 cents a pound, and October sugar closed down 0.09 cent at 9.09 cents.
Chicago Board of Trade July corn rose 5.50 cents to $2.32 a bushel.
July soybeans ended 18.75 cents higher at $7.4450 a bushel.
September soft red winter wheat futures settled up 8 cents at $3.5025 per bushel.
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