The influence of a weak dollar on oil prices tapered off a bit on Friday, but a better-than-expected report on US employment in October sealed in modest gains at the NYMEX. For most of last week, the Federal Reserve’s plan to add $600 million to the US economy over the next eight months had severely weakened the dollar, making dollar-priced oil investment products more attractive to foreign investors and bringing major increases in crude and heating oil prices. By Friday, however, considerations of the Fed’s action had been mostly integrated into oil prices, which actually dipped during late morning trading. But the moderately good news from the October employment report—that 151,000 jobs had been added to the US economy—spurred some optimism in oil traders and boosted prices later in the day. The boost made for slightly higher crude and heating oil prices at the time of the market’s close, which brought slightly higher retail heating oil prices on Monday. At the NYMEX on Monday morning, crude and heating oil prices were falling as the dollar strengthened against the euro.
Today’s average retail heating oil price in the Northeast is 1 cent higher per gallon than Friday’s average price.
