Heating oil steady despite market jitters

2 June 2010

Written by Neil Brunskill

Heating oil prices were stable during the electronic trading session of the New York Mercantile Exchange this morning (June 2nd), holding around $1.97 (€1.61) a gallon.

Crude oil prices were also recovering from earlier losses seen in the Asian trading session as stocks in China sank to a 13-month low.

Clarence Chu, a trader at options dealer Hudson Capital Energy in Singapore, said the markets are very jittery and are reacting sensitively to new developments and data.

"The dollar and euro exchange has been very volatile so that translates to the oil price. The soft euro will impact the dollar and that will hurt China's export sector," he explained.

The euro is currently trading close to a four-year low against the dollar, with many traders now anticipating that the two currencies will hit parity in the coming months.

Greece's sovereign debt burden has put unprecedented pressure on the single currency, and that pressure has been sustained as the crisis has spread to other European countries.