Oil Trades Above $91; Hugo Ch¿vez Dies

Crude Oil.....

Crude oil futures are trading slightly higher in Asia electronic session today, however the moevemnet was choppy after news of the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. President Hugo Chavez was a fighter. The former paratroop commander and fiery populist waged continual battle for his socialist ideals and outsmarted his rivals time and again, defeating a coup attempt, winning re-election three times and using his countrys vast oil wealth to his political Chavez used his countrys vast oil wealth to launch social programs that included state-run food markets, new public housing, free health clinics and education programs. Poverty declined during Chavezs presidency amid a historic boom in oil earnings, but critics said he failed to use the windfall of hundreds of billions of dollars to develop the countrys economy. Crude oil for April delivery is trading up 23 cents at $ 91.05 per barrel in Asia electronic session on the New York Mercantile Exchange today. It added 70 cents, or 0.8%, to settle at $90.82 a barrel, holding between $90.02 and $90.99 for the session. Crude-oil futures settled higher Tuesday with a weaker dollar, a rally in equities and upbeat euro-zone and U.S. economic data fueling the commodity’s first climb in four sessions. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA +0.89% leapt to a new high Tuesday. The rally intensified after a gauge of the U.S. services sector showed growth in February. See: U.S. stocks rally to lift Dow to new heights. The Dow industrials’ previous record was set on Oct. 9, 2007. Back then, oil futures traded at $80.26 a barrel. Weakness in the dollar provided support for oil and other dollar-denominated commodities, though the greenback did spend part of the session trimming back its losses as equities gained. The ICE dollar index was at 82.081, up from a low at 81.90, but still down from 82.214 in the U.S. late on Monday. MCX March crude oil futures may open todays session near Rs 4990 levels with resistance near Rs 5010 levels and support near Rs 4970-60 levels. Powered by Commodity Insights