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Oil hits 2009 high as dollar plunges

Ironslave

Ironslave

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Get used to this....


Oil hits high for 2009 as dollar plunges
By CHRIS KAHN

NEW YORK (AP) - Oil prices hit new highs for the year Thursday after a decision by the Federal Reserve to spend billions snapping up U.S. bonds sent the dollar tumbling.

Oil is priced in dollars and when the U.S. currency weakens, it essentially makes crude cheaper.

Benchmark crude for April delivery surged $2.17 to $51.07 a barrel in light trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil prices hit $52.25 earlier in the day, a price last seen on Dec. 1.

With the April contract set to expire Friday, most of the trading had shifted to the contract for May delivery where prices jumped $2.38 to $51.28 a barrel.

Analysts said investors flocked to crude stocks after the Federal Reserve announced late Wednesday it would buy long-term government bonds, a measure that's expected to jolt the economy with lower rates on mortgages and other consumer debt.

The Fed also said a $1 trillion program to jump-start consumer and small business lending could be expanded to include other financial assets.

``You're seeing wild swings in a lot of commodities today,'' said Phil Flynn, analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. ``The government is basically printing money to buy back all this paper, and it devalues the dollar.''

The U.S. dollar dropped against other major currencies Thursday morning. The euro traded at $1.3691, up more than 2 cents.

Flynn said the rise in oil shouldn't be taken as a sign that the economy in on the mend. The Fed is using all of its powers to prop up American businesses, ``and this is one of their last shots,'' Flynn said. ``If this doesn't work, they're out of bullets.''

Oil got more expensive despite a government report Thursday that said jobless claims set a new record for the eighth straight week. The Labor Department said continuing claims for unemployment insurance jumped 185,000 to a seasonally adjusted 5.47 million, another record-high and more than the roughly 5.33 million that economists expected.

Initial claims dropped to a seasonally adjusted 646,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 658,000, however. That was better than analysts' expectations.

The government also reported Thursday that people continue to cut back on driving. The Federal Highway Administration said motorists logged seven billion fewer miles in January, 3.1 percent less than the same period in 2008.

The dour economic news did little to dissuade investors as prices topped $50.47 a barrel, the previous high for 2009.

Cameron Hanover analyst Peter Beutel said if crude sets a new high for the year, it means that OPEC production cuts, the federal stimulus package and other bullish factors ``are working together to be more important at this moment than the recession and its impact on demand.''

``It means things are better than they've been in a while,'' Beutel said.

Investors could pour even more money into the oil market if prices stay above $50 a barrel, forcing crude prices even higher, he said.

Elsewhere, natural gas prices surged Thursday on a government report showing that U.S. stockpiles fell slightly more than expected last week.

The Energy Information Administration report said inventories held in underground storage in the lower 48 states fell by 30 billion cubic feet to about 1.65 trillion cubic feet for the week ended March 13.

Gas prices increased 1.3 cents a gallon overnight to a new national average of $1.933 per gallon, according to auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. Pump prices are 2.7 cents a gallon cheaper than a month ago and $1.346 a gallon cheaper than last year.

In other Nymex trading, gasoline for April delivery jumped 5.3 cents to $1.4186 a gallon, while heating oil rose 7.85 cents to trade at $1.3425 a gallon. Natural gas for April delivery rose 42 cents to $4.10 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, Brent prices rose $2.62 to $50.28 on the ICE Futures exchange.
 
lifterdead

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Thank god oil is finally going back up again.
 
lifterdead

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Why so happy? Do you sell oil?

Higher oil for us means higher petrol price, higher cost of food etc. etc. etc.

No. I just hate cars.
 
lifterdead

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Why are high oil prices good?

For a number of reasons. It increases demand for public transit, results in less conspicuous consumption, and drives innovation in alternative energy sources.

Check it: Fusion Power

http://www.generalfusion.com/

Things like this don't get funded when oil is cheap.




Forget about oil. Your kids won't be driving SUVs.
 
Tech

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my car runs on gas.......not hopes and dreams. lolz.
 
lifterdead

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my car runs on gas.......not hopes and dreams. lolz.

Not quite hopes and dreams. Give me a few grand, a couple of grad students, and I'll build you a fusor. Fusion is not quite the problem. In fact, fusing hydrogen is relatively easy. People have been doing in a multitude of different ways for the last 60+ years. (See hydrogen bombs.)

The challenge is the engineering aspect. How do we engineer a viable reactor around this? Aside from General Fusion, there are quite a few others tackling this, including the Navy. They're currently funding a program at Los Alamos that has already produced a peer-review experiment in fusor technology. Fusion reactors may already be here. (I've corresponded with Dr. Rick Nebel, the lead physicist. He was initially hired by the theoretical father of polywell fusion, Dr. Bussard, as an experimentalist to independently confirm his data.)

see www.talk-polywell.org


Anyways, cars suck. They ruined America.
 
Ironslave

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ld, I can't say I agree with you. Nixon was the first president to promise "energy independence from foreign oil", that was 40 years ago. Think of all the wasteful funding that has gone into alternative energy sources, easily millions, billions even?

Where would we be without cars? Probably much healthier on average, but a lot less would get done...
 
TJ

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ld, I can't say I agree with you. Nixon was the first president to promise "energy independence from foreign oil", that was 40 years ago. Think of all the wasteful funding that has gone into alternative energy sources, easily millions, billions even?

Where would we be without cars? Probably much healthier on average, but a lot less would get done...

I don't have a problem with cars but I would like to see different forms of transportation in America. I'd much rather take a 20 minute train ride to campus than have to deal with all the psycho's on the highway.
 

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Ironslave

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I don't have a problem with cars but I would like to see different forms of transportation in America. I'd much rather take a 20 minute train ride to campus than have to deal with all the psycho's on the highway.

Of course, I'd agree with that. If this is possible, then absolutely go for it. I think more trains and less cars would be good.
 
Natzo

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people won't stop using the car to go to the Bathroom unless the gas is pretty damn high!

people are stupid ans selfish.

that's why I ride my bike!
 
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people won't stop using the car to go to the Bathroom unless the gas is pretty damn high!

people are stupid ans selfish.

that's why I ride my bike!
what the fuck are you talking about?
 
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I was talking in the sequence of TJ post.
people won't stop using the car to go to the Bathroom unless the gas is pretty damn high!



so people are pooping in their cars?
 
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people won't stop using the car to go to the Bathroom unless the gas is pretty damn high!



so people are pooping in their cars?

LMAO:iorofl:
 
lifterdead

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ld, I can't say I agree with you. Nixon was the first president to promise "energy independence from foreign oil", that was 40 years ago. Think of all the wasteful funding that has gone into alternative energy sources, easily millions, billions even?

IS, I can't believe you, of all people would actually put faith in anything a president states.

As for wasting money on alternative energy, I agree. You need to do some research on ITER. Any plasma physicist worth his salt will tell you it's nothing but pork to feed the scientific community. In general I tend to take a bleak view of government-funded scientist. Polywell, however, is different. While they're currently receiving funds from the navy, the experimental reactor they have now was built by some top-noch physicists on leave from Los Alamos in a garage.

You're probably thinking, "Yeah, but how is fusion different from any of the other alternative energy scams out there?" It's a good question, without an easy answer. I've spent a large chunk of my life researching alternative energy. For many years I lived in an environmental living and learning center that was powered through solar, wind, and passive engineering. After all those years, I can tell you, without a doubt, solar and wind power are finicky, problematic, prone to break down, and expensive. During this time I became fed up with the environmentalist movement and left it.

Fusion is unlike any other alternative energy. I'll make another post about it with some link and such which will hopefully answer some Q's you may have.

FYI, I also think "energy independence from foreign oil" is a foolish statement. We will always have a need for the convenience of fossil fuels, even with a surplus of electric power.
 
Ironslave

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IS, I can't believe you, of all people would actually put faith in anything a president states.


I don't, thats why I brought up the fact that every one since Nixon has been promising this, and we're really not that much further along. What are the chances that more money in alternative energy resources will actually yield something productive?

Thanks for the nice contribution as well, sexnews :umwtf:
 
lifterdead

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I don't, thats why I brought up the fact that every one since Nixon has been promising this, and we're really not that much further along. What are the chances that more money in alternative energy resources will actually yield something productive?

Yes, lots of people have promised, and none have delivered. I contend that the current economic conditions are driving the free market to finally make investments in fusion that were needed years ago.

Remember, not all alternative energy is created equally. I really don't like fusion being lumped in with crappy alternative energy sources like biofuels, wind, solar and the like, but I guess if you don't understand the difference it would be easy to lump them all together.

Again, I'd bet my student loans that one of the fusion reactor designs breaks even relatively soon.
 
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