Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Crude Oil Gains, Heads for Biggest Monthly Increase Since 2009


http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-11-01/crude-oil-gains-heads-for-biggest-monthly-increase-since-2009.html

By Paul Gordon

(Bloomberg) -- Oil rose, heading for the biggest monthly gain in more than two years, on speculation European efforts to contain the region’s sovereign-debt crisis will boost economic growth and demand for commodities.

Futures gained as much as 0.5 percent today and are up 18 percent in October, the biggest increase since May 2009. European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet called for “swift implementation” of an agreement last week on measures to stem Europe’s debt crisis if financial stability is to be restored, Germany’s Bild Zeitung reported. A report this week may show Chinese manufacturing accelerated this month. Iran said global supply and demand of crude is balanced.

Crude for December delivery was at $93.37 a barrel, up 5 cents, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 7:20 a.m. Singapore time. Prices dropped 0.7 percent to $93.32 a barrel on Oct. 28, paring the biggest weekly increase since February.

Brent crude for December settlement was little changed at $109.90 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The contract traded at a premium of $16.57 a barrel to New York futures, the smallest differential since July 4. The premium reached a record $27.88 at the Oct. 14 close.

China’s manufacturing growth accelerated for a third month, a report tomorrow may show. The purchasing manager’s index probably rose to 51.8 from 51.2 the prior month, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists before the report by the National Bureau of Statistics and the Federation of Logistics and Purchasing. China is the world’s second-biggest user of oil, after the U.S.

Iran’s Governor to OPEC, Mohammad Ali Khatibi, said supply and demand in world oil markets is balanced and he sees no need for an emergency meeting of the producer group, according to the state-run Iranian Students News Agency yesterday. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries plans to meet next on Dec. 14 in Vienna.

--Editors: Ovais Subhani, James Poole

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Gordon at pgordon6@bloomberg.net

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