Oil’s two-day climb stalled after US banks said credit markets haven’t recovered yet, pulling shares lower in late trading on April 22, 2009, while Japanese equities fell today. US oil stockpiles increased for a seventh week to the highest since September 1990, the Energy Department said on April 22, 2009.
“Optimism is slowly leaking out like a balloon,” said Jonathan Kornafel, a director for Asia at options traders Hudson Capital Energy in Singapore. “Crude oil is trading as a proxy for the equity markets. People can only ignore the fundamentals for so long.”
Prices are up 8.6% so far in 2009, after tumbling 54% in 2008.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index ended on April 22, 2009 down 0.8% at 843.55 after rising as much as 1.4%. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average dipped 0.5%, to 8,686.84.
The Energy Department said US oil stockpiles increased 3.86 million barrels to 370.6 million. Analysts anticipated a 2.5 million-barrel gain, as per the news survey. Gasoline inventories increased 802,000 barrels to 217.3 million. A 700,000-barrel decline in the motor fuel was forecast.
Brent crude oil for June 2009 settlement dropped as much as 56 cents, or 1.1%, to $49.25 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures Europe Exchange. It was traded at $49.41 a barrel at 12:30 p.m. Singapore time.
