Forex Top Story
9/11/2009 4:23 PM ET
(RTTNews) -
Crude oil dropped below $70 per barrel on Friday as traders showed concern over energy demand. With the drop, oil gave back a good portion of its weekly gains.
Light sweet crude for October delivery moved to $69.29 per barrel, down $2.65 on the session. Prices slipped as low as $69.53.
Oil closed the week up 45 cents and hit a two-week high of $73.55 early on Friday.
Oil added 84 cents on Thursday as the Energy Departed reported crude inventories decreased by 5.9 million barrels last week. Earlier in the day, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries left output unchanged as expected, at the 154th meeting in Vienna.
In economic news on Friday, import prices 2.0% in August. This followed a drop of 0.7% in the previous month. Excluding oil, import prices edged up 0.4 percent.
Export prices climbed 0.7 percent for the month, compared to a dip of 0.3 percent in July.
The University of Michigan/Reuters consumer sentiment index rose to 70.2 for the mid-September reading. This was up from a mark of 65.7 for August. The latest reading marks the first increase in the past 3 months.
Also, the U.S. Commerce Department revealed that wholesale inventories dropped 1.4 percent in July, the 11th consecutive month of declines. This moderated a bit after a downwardly revised 2.1 percent slide in June.
The dollar again extended its lowest level of 2009 against the euro and also remained near a monthly low against the British pound.
by RTT Staff Writer
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