Oil prices hit record high on U.S. dollar decline
Last Updated: Tuesday, April 15, 2008 | 8:43 AM ET
CBC News
Crude oil prices climbed to a record above $112 US a barrel in early trading on Tuesday.
Analysts said the main reason for the latest increase was a decline in the value of the U.S. dollar relative to the euro on Monday.
Crude oil's recent run above $100 a barrel has been largely attributed to a steadily depreciating U.S. currency, because a weakening dollar prompts investors to seek a safe haven in commodities such as oil and gold.
"We've seen another swing down in the U.S. dollar, so I think we saw short-term traders go back into oil as a hedge against the falling dollar," Mark Pervan, senior commodity strategist at the ANZ Bank in Melbourne, Australia, told the Associated Press.
Light, sweet crude for May delivery rose Tuesday to $112.48 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, surpassing the previous trading record of $112.21 set last week.
On Monday, the major U.S. bank Wachovia became the latest U.S. financial institution to announce losses because of turmoil on the mortgage markets. That helped push oil prices up and the dollar down, said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore.
He said the news from Wachovia as well as disappointing first-quarter results from General Electric Co. on Friday overshadowed concerns raised by the Group of Seven industrialized nations about the dollar's fall. The G7 remarks were seen as a warning by some analysts that the group may be contemplating an intervention that could lessen crude's attraction as an inflation hedge and send it lower.
Crude prices were also supported by news of disruptions to oil supplies in the United States and Nigeria, though analysts said the disruptions were minor.
"They only look like temporary shutdowns but … the combination of that and the fact that the dollar was off again was the key," Pervan said.
With files from the Associated Press
