Oil Prices Surge Above $64

Crude oil surged on Monday morning as the Chinese bailout plan may help struggling energy demand. Light sweet crude for December delivery moved to $64.13, up $3.09 for the session. Oil reached as high as $65.56 in electronic trading.

In an effort to battle the global economic crisis, China has unveiled ten major steps, the Beijing-based State Council said Sunday. The fourth-largest economy said it would relax its credit conditions, reduce taxes and plans a stimulus package amounting to about 4 trillion yuan or nearly $570 billion.

The dollar also saw modest weakness against other major currencies, which added to oil's hedge appeal. The dollar traded near 1.2900 against the euro, compared to a 2-year high of 1.2328 reached late last month.

Oil closed slightly higher on Friday but still lost more than 10% on the week. Oil hit as low as $59.97 late Thursday night, its lowest mark in 19 months.

Crude has lost more than 40% over the last 1 1/2 months amid ongoing demand worries caused by the global financial crisis. Oil has lost more than 55% from its record $147.27 reached in July.

At the pump, prices have continued to head lower. According to AAA's daily fuel gauge report, a regular gallon of gasoline fell to $2.24, down from $2.259 on Friday. A month ago, prices were at $3.291 and a year-ago gasoline averaged $3.10.

In other energy trading, natural gas added 48.3 cents to $7.24 per million British thermal units. Heating oil climbed to $2.0656, up 8.7 cents and RBOB gasoline added 5.66 cents to $1.4061.

In metals, gold surged $20.50 to $754.70 an ounce. Silver climbed 39.7 cents to $10.36 an ounce while copper added 13.75 cents to $1.8345 per pound.


Source :
1. Oil Prices Surge Above $64 11/10/2008 10:07 AM ET