Heating oil slides on Greece debt concerns

12 February 2010

Written by Bob Burton

Heating oil prices retreated during the electronic trading session of the New York Mercantile Exchange this morning (February 12th), while crude prices also dipped below $75 (€55) a barrel.

As European markets opened, the near-term heating oil futures contract was trading around $1.953 a gallon, down nearly a cent on yesterday's settle price. The marginal losses came as traders anticipated an impasse among European leaders looking to resolve the Greek sovereign debt crisis.

Meanwhile, an upcoming report from the Energy Information Administration was also weighing on the minds of traders, as further weakness in US demand for crude, heating oil and transport fuels is expected.

Analysts polled by Bloomberg forecast that the data will show a rise of 1.6 million barrels for the week ended February 5th.

The weekly figures are usually released on Wednesday, but this week snowstorms caused the organisation to push back publication until later today.

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