nnuut
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Yes, A LOSS, but a GAIN for us!!! View attachment 4993 
Oil rallies, but still posts record monthly loss
Crude down by nearly one-third for October. Friday gain follows stock market advance.
By Kenneth Musante, CNNMoney.com staff writer
Last Updated: October 31, 2008: 4:54 PM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Oil prices staged a late-session rally Friday as credit markets loosened, but the gain only slightly tempered a month in which crude fell by the largest monthly percentage since the Nymex contracts began trading.
U.S. crude for December delivery settled up $1.85 to $67.81 a barrel. Crude had been down for most of the day, and touched a low of $63.12 a barrel before surging upward.
For the month, oil prices fell 32.6%, the largest percentage since Nymex trading began in 1983, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Expectations of weaker demand have driven the crude price down more than 50% from its record high of $147.27 a barrel in mid-July.
Friday's rally was in tandem with stocks, which gained in part because of looser credit markets. The stock rally lessened pressure on hedge funds to sell off their oil assets, according to Chris Lafakis, associate economist with Moody's Economy.com.
"Investors are pricing in a global recession," said Lafakis, but "there was a sense that maybe [the oil market] went too far."
Oil's rise may only be temporary however, according to Stephen Schork, publisher of energy trading newsletter The Schork Report, as weaker data about the state of the U.S. and world economy continues to emerge.
"I think this is just some end-of-the-month window dressing," he said.
Crude prices had been down more than a dollar for most of the session after a slew of negative economic reports aggravated fears that demand for fuel in the United States, the world's largest oil consumer, was slipping.
Economic slowdown: The gross domestic product [more]
http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/31/markets/oil/index.htm?postversion=2008103116
Oil rallies, but still posts record monthly loss
Crude down by nearly one-third for October. Friday gain follows stock market advance.
By Kenneth Musante, CNNMoney.com staff writer
Last Updated: October 31, 2008: 4:54 PM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Oil prices staged a late-session rally Friday as credit markets loosened, but the gain only slightly tempered a month in which crude fell by the largest monthly percentage since the Nymex contracts began trading.
U.S. crude for December delivery settled up $1.85 to $67.81 a barrel. Crude had been down for most of the day, and touched a low of $63.12 a barrel before surging upward.
For the month, oil prices fell 32.6%, the largest percentage since Nymex trading began in 1983, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Expectations of weaker demand have driven the crude price down more than 50% from its record high of $147.27 a barrel in mid-July.
Friday's rally was in tandem with stocks, which gained in part because of looser credit markets. The stock rally lessened pressure on hedge funds to sell off their oil assets, according to Chris Lafakis, associate economist with Moody's Economy.com.
"Investors are pricing in a global recession," said Lafakis, but "there was a sense that maybe [the oil market] went too far."
Oil's rise may only be temporary however, according to Stephen Schork, publisher of energy trading newsletter The Schork Report, as weaker data about the state of the U.S. and world economy continues to emerge.
"I think this is just some end-of-the-month window dressing," he said.
Crude prices had been down more than a dollar for most of the session after a slew of negative economic reports aggravated fears that demand for fuel in the United States, the world's largest oil consumer, was slipping.
Economic slowdown: The gross domestic product [more]
http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/31/markets/oil/index.htm?postversion=2008103116
