Brent oil price trading near $74 on optimistic US data

8 July 2010 8 July 2010

BonTrade

Brent oil prices open Thursday’s trading session up over $2 higher from the previous close and are hovering around $74 a barrel mark as the latest US data for retail sales overshadowed concerns of a global economic slowdow, sending the US Dow Jones back over the 10,000 point mark.

In London, Brent crude oil futures for August 2010 delivery was at $73.86 a barrel 07.00 GMT on the ICE Futures Exchange.

“Oil prices continued to hitch a ride on the tails of a wide swinging stock market. The main trading focus in oil has shifted away from the euro and to the equities for the time being.” Ritterbusch and Associates said in a report.

Meanwhile, the IMF reported in it’s World Economic Outlook that the global economy will expand 4.6 percent in 2010, the biggest gain since 2007, compared with an April projection of 4.2 percent.

“Market sentiment remains a very important driver. Oil really follows equity markets and other risky assets.” said Yingxi Yu, a Singapore based commodities analyst with Barclays Capital.