According to this article on oil and stock marketing trading at Foxbusiness.com, crude oil easily broke the record for the largest one-time gain and the all-time record close when it settled at $138.54 on Friday. That marks a gain of 8.4%, or $10.74.
The previous all-time record close of $133.17 was set on May 21 while the largest one-time gain was set on Thursday when oil surged $5.49.
Crude’s surge was so sharp that trading was temporarily halted Friday afternoon for all oil-related commodities after they hit their daily limit for trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Crude oil peaked at $139.01 a barrel on Friday afternoon, an increase of $11.22 after opening the day at $127.79.
The price jump came as traders buzzed about an analyst predicting oil would hit $150 by next month, a drop in the U.S dollar and a threat of a potential air strike in Iran.
Ole Slorer, a Morgan Stanley analyst, forecasted crude could hit $150 by July 4, due to increasing demand in Asia. This combined with a weakening dollar may have encouraged overseas traders to seek a hedge against the falling dollar.
A day after the European Central Bank made comments that hurt the greenback, the dollar fell further on Friday as a result of weak labor data. The U.S. Department of Labor released a report showing the unemployment rate increased from 5.0% to 5.5% last month, the biggest monthly increase since 1986.
Phil Flynn, FOX Business contributor and energy analyst at Alaron Trading cited the data, the dollar, and geopolitical concerns.
“You put it all together it was a prefect storm to drive these prices,” Flynn said. “Traders down here never saw anything like it and they may never see anything like that again.”
Nigeria's Oil Minister Odein Ajumogobia told Reuters that OPEC is ready to jump in and help to slow rapidly rising oil prices, but it does not see any reason to immediately increase supply. Ajumogobia insists the weak dollar and fear of a supply gap were the driver in today’s spike, according to Reuters
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