Oil futures steadied Thursday at the New York Mercantile Exchange after witnessing extremely volatile trading earlier in the week.
September light sweet crude was up 59 cents at $77.13 a barrel late in the session. Reformulated gasoline was unchanged at $2.04 a gallon, and heating oil edged a penny higher to $2.08 a gallon. Near-term natural gas was down 16 cents to $6.19 per million British thermal units. After moving into record territory Wednesday on momentum generated by the Energy Information Administration's petroleum inventory report, crude prices plummeted more than $2. Crude's failure to either sustain record high levels or to puncture technical levels on the downside suggest that it may be entering a consistent trading range, according to Edward Meir, analyst at Man Financial. Regardless of the large late-day drop last time out, prices will likely be supported in the near-term, Meir wrote in a research note. There "are no major fundamental bearish triggers that could induce more selling at this stage," he says. "For that matter, we are nearing the sweet-spot of the hurricane season, while OPEC is still signaling that it will sit on its hands" at its next meeting in September.- Loading Comments...
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| Dow Jones | S&P 500 | NASDAQ | 10-Year Note | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10,270.47 | 1,093.48 | 2,167.88 | 34.29 |
Oil *
75.55
|
|
UP
73.00
|
UP
6.24
|
UP
18.86
|
DOWN
0.17
|
10 Yr
3.43%
SPDR Gold
109.74
|
|
+0.72%
|
+0.57%
|
+0.88%
|
-0.49%
|
Data delayed 20 minutes |














