Oil prices rally on strong US data
Oil prices rose this afternoon after getting a boost from strong US data, which showed that the number of jobless claims dropped to the lowest level since 2008 and consumer confidence has improved.
The Department of Labor reported that initial applications for unemployment benefits dropped 4,000 to 364,000 last week in the latest sign that the job market recovery is picking up speed. Analysts polled by Bloomberg expected initial claims to increase to 380,000.
Later in the afternoon, the University of Michigan reported that its consumer sentiment index surged from 64.1 to 69.9, also topping market forecasts.
The strong data more than offset a downward revision of the third quarter US GDP growth estimate from 2 percent to 1.8 percent announced by the Commerce Department today.
Demand for oil futures received more support from yesterday's better than expected US inventories data. The report from the Department of Energy revealed that US oil stockpiles shed over 10 million barrels, suggesting that oil demand from the world's largest energy consumer was on the rise last week.
US light, sweet crude for February delivery, currently the most actively traded contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), rose 88 cents to US$99.55/barrel in morning trade in New York.
February Brent crude added 37 cents to trade at US$108.12/barrel on the ICE Exchange this afternoon.
Today's top risers in the oil and gas sector were:
Leed Petroleum (LON:LDP), up 52 percent at 0.114 pence at midday
BPC (LON:BPC), up 11 percent at 6.05 pence
Enegi Oil (LON:ENEG), up 10.5 percent at 9.68 pence
Europa Oil & Gas (LON:EOG), up 6 percent at 8.34 pence
Northern Petroleum (LON:NOP), up 5 percent at 82.8 pence
The top fallers were:
Woburn Energy (LON:WBN), down 13.5 percent at 1.25 pence at midday
Silvermere Energy (LON:SLME), down 10.5 percent at 12.3 pence
Nighthawk Energy (LON:HAWK), down 9.5 percent at 2.55 pence
Gasol (LON:GAS), down 8 percent at 0.437 pence
Argos Resources (LON:ARG), down 8 percent at 12.9 pence
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