Monday, January 03, 2011

Getting The Oil Squeeze

Oil extended a rally above $92 a barrel on Monday, spurred by expectations that a global economic recovery is gathering strength and as market bulls set their sights on $100 a barrel.

U.S. crude was trading 77 cents higher at $92.15 a barrel by 1108 GMT (6:08 a.m. ET), just off a session high of $92.20, its highest since October 2008. It settled at $91.38 on Friday, marking an annual gain of around 15 percent and the highest year-end price since 2007.

Brent was up $1.20 a barrel at $95.95, off an intraday peak of $96.04, also the highest since early October 2008.

This is not boding well for a recovering economy.  Every gas station I passed today had the price of regular at about $3 a gallon. The cheapest was Quik-Trip at $2.949. This continuing run up is going to keep our recovery at 1 - 2% at best and that means no jobs and basically no growth. The prices are being run up by the speculators hoping to make a few bucks off the world's misery before things turn worse but the weakness in the dollar is contributing. Can't say it is very encouraging.

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