The price of crude oil goes up for a second day today after allied air attacks on U.S. forces, Britain and France over Libya over the weekend increased the risk of disruption of supplies of oil from the third largest exporter in Africa. Meanwhile, the citizens in Yemen protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh is reinforced by further evidence of the deepening political crisis in the region. The U.S. light crude for delivery in April, rising by 5 cents to 102.38 dollars a barrel in today’s electronic trading on the stock exchange in New York. Its price rose by 1.26 dollars yesterday to 102.33 dollars a barrel, its highest level since March 10st. The April futures on U.S. light crude expire today. More actively traded futures for delivery in May expensive by 1 cent to 103.10 dollars per barrel. The Brent, meanwhile, cheaper by 10 cents to 114.86 dollars per barrel, having traded yesterday with an increase of 0.9 percent to 114.97 dollars per barrel. The U.S., Britain and France intervened in Libya this weekend in support of rebels in the east of the country after the United Nations authorize the conduct of military operations last Thursday. The Allies fired over 100 Tomahawk missiles over the weekend against forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, and established no-fly zone over much of the country. The Libyan leader condemned the coalition against his regime, calling it a “coalition of Satan.”
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The Trading session on the Old Continent ended with divergent movements of major indexes on the background of mixed economic data today. During today’s session of the European Central Bank expected left its main interest rate in the eurozone at a level of 1 percent for the eighth consecutive month in December. Its president, Jean-Claude Trichet surprised markets, however, as announced in December that the planned auction for the granting of loans to commercial banks in the euro area for a period of 1 year will be in the basic rate of 1%. Instead, the interest rate will be indexed to market interest rates in the euro area. Economic data today showed that services sector in Britain and the United States has dropped unexpectedly in November. Moreover, the gross domestic product of the euro area rose by 0.4 percent in the third quarter, but only because of the increase in government spending and exports. Shares of the largest engineering company Siemens in Europe fell by 5.2 percent to 64.08 euros on the stock exchange in Frankfurt, after the conglomerate reported its first quarterly loss for last year. Conglomerate announced that its profit has contracted by 57 percent annually for the preceding fiscal 2009
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