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WTI oil trading down 3 percent, near $73 on grim US data
Published on July 1, 2010 by oilprices · No CommentsWTI oil prices are trading over three percent lower in Thursday’s afternoon session, close to the $73 mark as the latest US unemployment and house sales data look grimmer than initially thought.
On the NYMEX, WTI Light crude oil futures for August 2010 delivery was down to $73.48 at 15.00 GMT after holding out near the $74 to $75 mark for most of the morning.
Initial claims for US state unemployment benefits increased 13,000 to a seasonally adjusted 472,000, the US Labor Department said on today.
Meanwhile the US data just seems to get worse as the number of buyers who signed contracts to purchase US homes dropped in May 2010 to the lowest level on record, a sign the US housing recovery cannot survive without US government incentives.
New sales contracts on existing homes fell 16% in May 2010 from a year ago after a federal subsidy for buyers expired at the end of April 2010, the US National Association of Realtors reported.
“Nothing we have seen this week would tell us definitively that a double dip is not in the cards,” energy-advisory firm Cameron Hanover said in a research note. “And that fear has pressed equities and oil prices lower.”
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