Crude prices
An unknown trader by the name of Richard Arens is reportedly the one who drove oil to USD 100. Last Wednesday, as the American barrel was being traded at USD 99.53, this manager from the ABS company purchased 1,000 barrels (the regulatory minimum) from a colleague at USD 100, reports the Financial Times. The barrel price then dropped. With this 1,000 barrels, which changed hands at a price that has been a magic number for a long time, "we truly entered an era of expensive oil," and "our economies will have to get used to it," stressed French Economics Minister Christine Lagarde last Thursday. Richard Arens is the man who lit the fuse, but everything was ready for the explosion, reports Les Échos, citing still strong demand, a limited supply, and investors increasingly looking for protection against an economic slowdown by playing with commodities, plus the problems in Nigeria and Pakistan.
In fact, crude prices continued to climb and, for the first time, exceeded the USD 100 mark at USD 100.09 during the session in New York. At 5:30 p.m. GMT, light sweet crude was trading at USD 99.73, up 9 cents from the closing price the day before. There was an identical movement in London, where the price of February Brent also hit a new peak last Thursday, advancing to USD 98.50 a barrel. At 5:30 p.m. GMT, it was trading at USD 97.87, up 3 cents. (AFP, Les Échos)
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