Oil prices hit a new record of more than US$135 a barrel before falling back in Asia yesterday, with supply worries, rising global demand and a slumping dollar keeping crude futures on an upward track.
With gas and oil prices setting new records nearly every day, many analysts are beginning to wonder what might stop prices from rising.
There are technical signals in the futures market, including price differences between near-term and long-term contracts, that crude may soon fall.
But with demand for oil growing in the developing world and little end in sight to supply problems in producing countries, few analysts are willing to call an end to crude’s rally.
“The sentiment in the market is very bullish at the moment,” said David Moore, commodity strategist with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney.
Mid-afternoon yesterday in Singapore, light, sweet crude for July delivery was up US$1.07 at US$134.24 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract had earlier hit a trading record of US$135.04 a barrel.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
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