Crude Prices Ease a Bit

Oil remains above $79 a barrel.
By TSC Staff ,

Oil prices took a breather and retreated modestly Friday, but crude in New York remained above $79 a barrel.

Crude for October delivery fell 94 cents to $79.15 in late trading, putting the near-month contract back below its previous session's record close. Tight inventories and storm activity in the Gulf of Mexico helped lift oil this week, as traders looked past a decision by OPEC to increase production quotas.

Natural gas had another big swing, this time jumping 41 cents to $6.44 per million British thermal units. Heating oil slipped about 1 cent to $2.21 a gallon, and reformulated gasoline was little changed around $2.04 a gallon.

Hurricane Humberto, which hit Texas early Thursday and led to the idling of three refineries, has passed, but now traders are keeping their eyes on Tropical Storm Ingrid, a system out in the Atlantic east of the Lesser Antilles, to see if it will track toward the oil infrastructure in and along the Gulf.

Among stocks,

Exxon Mobil

(XOM) - Get Report

was stable, down 2 cents at $88.60.

ConocoPhillips

(COP) - Get Report

also held its ground, tacking on 9 cents at $85.20.

Chevron

(CVX) - Get Report

rose 33 cents to $90.42.

More broadly, the CBOE Oil Index was fractionally lower at 775.65.

Loading ...