CRUDE OIL

Crude oil gained more than one percent on Monday after China pledged to make its currency more flexible, raising expectations of higher demand from the world's second largest energy consumer.

Most Asian stocks rose on Friday, encouraged by a late rebound on Wall Street, while the euro hovered near 3-week highs against the dollar after a strong investor response to Spanish bond auctions.

BP Plc bosses weathered a week of anger in Washington but the energy giant's financial outlook faces renewed scrutiny from investors trying to gauge remaining costs and risks from the biggest oil spill in U.S. history.

Asian shares rose on Wednesday, led by electronics makers and resource stocks, after successful European debt auctions boosted hopes for global growth and lifted commodity prices.

Oil rose above $77 on Wednesday to reach the highest level since mid-May, tracking a recovery in global stock markets as risk appetite returns with easing concern about Europe's economy.

U.S. crude oil futures climbed on Tuesday after the euro and equities markets rose when debt auctions in Europe bolstered investor confidence in global economic recovery.

It is difficult to forecast the impact of severe tropical weather in the Gulf of Mexico region on crude oil production, because shut-in production in any particular year varies depending on the overall level of severe weather and the specific track of each storm (see Figure 1). The 2008 and 2009 hurricane seasons illustrate a wide range of oil production impacts.

Major Asian oil buyers including India and China bought comparatively less loads of West African oil in June. According to reports, Indian, Chinese Taiwanese and Indonesian end-users bought a total of 1.65 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude from the oil-exporting region in 52 full or part cargoes, down from 1.72 million bpd in 56 cargoes in May.

As driven by a late-rally in the Wall Street, WTI crude oil price ended the day with small gains. After market close, API's report showing a dip in crude inventory boosted the market further. However, we doubt if the strength can sustain as sovereign crisis in the Eurozone has shown intensified signs of contagion. Gold price retreated after hitting a new record at 1254.5. Yet, outlook is still bullish for the yellow metal as long as worries over deficits problems persist and uncertainty over glo...

The Australian Dollar has opened firmer this morning, trading at USD0.8260 following on from yesterday's lead, as equity markets offshore posted gains. Gains in base metal prices also helped support the AUD, with copper up 1.1%, nickel up 1.5% and aluminium +2.8%.

Gold, platinum and other bullion metals grabbed the center-stage on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange Inc (TOCOM) during the month of May 2010 with staggering volume growth in the bullion commodities. Gold witnessed average daily volume of 66,354 contracts in May 2010 up by 33.9% from 49,545 contracts recorded in April 2010. Platinum contracts increased by 28.1% to 28,981 contracts during the month. The monthly trading volumes in gold and platinum remained at the top with gold monthly volumes at 1194...

Considering the extent of oil spillage happening from the Gulf of Mexico and the dangers looming large on the environment due to that, has left the investors of these oil and gas exploration companies perplexed on their investment preferences. As and how the gravity of the oil spillage started coming to the knowledge of the investor community, they showed a trend of exit from the traditional oil and gas exploration companies and diverted their funds towards alternate energy companies.

The slow progress by the European Central Bank in stabilising European debt crisis has led to serious risk of jeopardizing the economic recovery by limiting consumer and corporate credit availability. Crude oil and refined products have not seen the same increase in implied volatilities as those seen in US and European equities may be due to anticipatory nature of equities to oil, according to an analysis by Bank of America-Merrill Lynch.

Sovereign debt crisis in Europe, a much weaker-than-expected Euro and slightly higher-than-expected non-OPEC supply has forced Bank of America-Merrill Lynch (BofAML) to revises its WTI and Brent crude oil forecasts for second half of 2010 from $92/barrel to $78 per barrel. Yet despite the much reduced likelihood of a robust upswing in global economic activity, BofAML remain cautiously optimistic that the breadth of the recovery outside Southern Europe will prevent a double-dip scenario. Hence it...

Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 were down 2.2 to 2.5 percent at 0915 GMT (5:15 a.m. ET) on Tuesday, pointing to a steep decline on Wall Street.

It is often difficult to guage whether price of a commodity reflects the underlying fundamentals or reflects the mood of investors in financial markets either in terms of risk aversion or increased risk appetite.

U.S. crude oil fell back below $70 a barrel on Monday, giving up an earlier gain on persistent worries that Europe's debt crisis would slow the global economic recovery.

The euro fell to a fresh four-year low on Wednesday after a German move to sharpen financial regulation raised doubts about the prospect for global recovery, pulling down Asian stocks, metals and crude oil.

The euro fell to a fresh four-year low on Wednesday after a German move to sharpen financial regulation raised doubts about the prospect for global recovery, pulling down Asian stocks, metals and crude oil.

OPEC's Secretary General said on Sunday global oil markets were oversupplied, but it was too early to talk about the producer group taking action to halt the sharp price fall sparked by the euro zone debt crisis.

Ukraine said it will press for changes in the natural gas price formula fixed by Russia's Gazprom and its Naftohaz Ukrainy national oil and gas company. Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said here, We have agreed that we will work on this, since the formula does not satisfy us.