Heating oil plummets to $1.90

27 November 2009

Wholesale heating oil prices sank during electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange this morning (November 27th), reacting to concerns that Dubai World may renege on $59 billion (€39 billion) worth of debt.

Reacting to the announcement, heating oil contracts fell more than eight cents to trade at $1.90 a gallon before picking up marginally as the European trading session began.

"The Dubai situation is very worrying and people are obviously worried about a potential domino effect if Dubai can't pay off their debt," said Benson Wang, senior adviser at Commodity Broking Services in Sydney, speaking to Reuters.

Crude oil prices were also down this morning, alongside Asian and European stocks and shares and high-yield currencies such as the Australian dollar and Brazilian real.

US markets will remain closed today for the Thanksgiving break; crude and heating oil contracts selling on the New York Mercantile Exchange will be driven by electronic trading as there will be no physical opening of the market.

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