The price of U.S. light crude fell sharply by nearly 3 percent by the end of today’s session of the oil exchange in New York and was its lowest point since the beginning of April, sent Wall Street Journal. The news that U.S. financial regulators have raised accusations against the U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs for fraud mortgage securities, distressed investors on Wall Street and led to increased sales in the financial sector. According to financial analysts, if the financial regulatory authorities in the U.S. fined Goldman Sachs, it may cause the bank to liquidate their bets on oil price rises. The U.S. dollar rose strongly against most major currencies, excluding the Japanese yen, which lowered the price of raw materials, which are traded in dollars, including oil. U.S. light crude for delivery in May ended Friday’s session with a fall in price from U.S. $ 2.27, or 2.65 percent, to 83.24 dollars a barrel. Today’s decline in energy raw material was the strongest since the beginning of February. The price of oil futures varied in the range of 82.52 to 85.44 dollars per barrel during today’s session. Meanwhile, the International Petroleum Exchange in London Brent with delivery in June fell 1.66 dollars or 1.9 percent, to 85.93 dollars a barrel.
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The price of oil conquer new 15-month high during today’s e-commerce in Asia, supported by the recent good economic data for the third largest economy in the world – China, which renewed expectations for the recovery of global economy this year. Depreciation of the dollar to a three-week low against the euro, and extremely low temperatures in most of the northern hemisphere, also raised the price of energy input at the beginning of the week to the highest level since October 2008. Economic optimism contributed data on exports to China, which increased by 17.7% yoy in December. This is the first annual export growth for the past 14 months. China is expected to be engine of global economic growth this year. Moreover, today it became clear that oil imports in the country rose to a record 203.8 million metric tons last year. China is the second largest energy consumer in the world after the United States. U.S. light crude for delivery in February to 0.1 percent more expensive to 82.75 dollars a barrel during electronic trading today on the stock exchange in New York. This is the highest price level since October 14, 2008.
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