Dollar Dips, Crude Surges: Oil Alert
NEW YORK (
) -- Oil futures surged above $71 on Tuesday as the greenback weakened and oil watchers waited for pronouncements from several of the world's oil ministers.
In the morning, the front-month contract for light, sweet crude was soaring up $3.12 to $71.14 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Friday, the day before the Labor Day holiday weekend, the contract for October delivery rose by 6 cents to settle at $68.02.
Crude's upward move came on the same day that the Euro itself reached a new yearly high against the dollar. The buck is also down against a whole host of currencies today, with the dollar index plummeting to a low for 2009.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is meeting Wednesday to go over its global oil policy. Reports are circulating Monday that Ali al-Naimi, Saudi Arabia's oil minister, said that the oil market is in good condition and well supplied, lending credence that a production cut from the group will not be coming this week.
Major oil stocks were climbing higher in the morning as well. Shares of
Exxon Mobil
(XOM) - Get Report
,
ConocoPhillips
(COP) - Get Report
and
Chevron
(CVX) - Get Report
were adding 2.5%, 2.8% and 2.4%, respectively, after the opening bell.
Morning trading also found
Marathon Oil
(MRO) - Get Report
gaining another 3.2%, while
Hess
(HES) - Get Report
was doing slightly better by putting on 3.6%.
Among the servicers,
Schlumberger
(SLB) - Get Report
was tacking on another $2.41, or 4.3%, at $58.28.
BJ Services
(BJS)
dipped slightly on Friday, was bidding at $16.77 today after adding 28 cents.
-- Written by Sung Moss in New York
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