Crude Prices Ease a Bit
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.