http://money.cnn.com/2007/10/18/markets/oil/index.htm?postversion=2007101818

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Oil prices finished at an all-time high above $89 a barrel Thursday, while the cost of a gallon of gasoline jerked higher.Light, sweet crude for the November contract jumped $2.07 to settle at $89.47 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, shattering the previous record of $87.61 a barrel reached two days earlier.

Gasoline prices climbed nearly two cents Thursday as crude oil finished at an all-time high above $89 a barrel. Gasoline prices climbed nearly two cents Thursday as crude oil finished at an all-time high above $89 a barrel. In after-hours electronic trading light, sweet crude for November delivery went even higher, hitting $90.02 a barrel, according to the Associated Press. Earlier in the day, crude prices scrambled to an all-time trading high of $89.55 a barrel.

Prices at the pump have been slow to respond to rising crude prices recently, but that may be changing. On Thursday, gas prices gained nearly 2 cents to a national average of $2.79 a gallon for regular-grade gasoline, according to AAA. They are up 4 cents since Monday."There's almost an inevitability here now that we are going to get to $100 a barrel," said John Kilduff, an energy analyst at Man Financial in New York.

Helping to lift crude prices higher was a decline in the dollar, which fell to an all-time low versus the euro and also dipped versus the yen.Since oil is priced in dollars, a declining greenback makes oil less expensive for consumers outside the United States, encouraging more consumption.

Wednesday's news that Turkey had authorized military action in Northern Iraq also helped prop up crude prices.Conflict along the Turkey-Iraq border could disrupt oil supplies coming out of the region and drive crude prices even higher."It's just a round robin of geopolitical and macroeconomic issues," said Kilduff. Despite the recent gains in crude prices, when adjusted for inflation, oil is still slightly cheaper than the $95 a barrel or so it would have been in the early 1980s.



[Edited on October 18, 2007 at 10:13 PM. Reason : .]

10/18/2007 10:12:09 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEZsuuOf3Ao&mode=related&search=

10/18/2007 11:10:36 PM

what middle school kid wrote this shit...

Quote :

" Gasoline prices climbed nearly two cents Thursday as crude oil finished at an all-time high above $89 a barrel. Gasoline prices climbed nearly two cents Thursday as crude oil finished at an all-time high above $89 a barrel."

10/18/2007 11:10:52 PM

SandSanta still owes me $100.

10/18/2007 11:49:06 PM

Maybe the ripple effect of higher fuel prices (and a devaluing dollar) are why its $10 for a Quiznos sub and some chips and a drink (for the regular size).

10/18/2007 11:54:17 PM

It is not.

10/19/2007 8:44:18 AM

Just in time for the holidays, folks! The gas price bugaboo! Look forward to hearing another round of stupid and redundant stories on "How will $100 oil effect your Christmas (which is under attack)?".

10/19/2007 10:31:27 AM

10/19/2007 11:02:02 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o-G_s_uKlo

10/19/2007 11:08:35 AM

Interesting how the $90 barrel of oil seems to translate to nearly the same price at the pump when compared with what we were paying when it was $70 a barrel.

10/19/2007 12:21:45 PM

^ It is a bit interesting. Sometimes it's refinery capacity and sometimes it's not. The correlation with barrel price seems very loose though, all the while, oil companies are making record profits.

10/19/2007 12:29:04 PM

wow, us going into the middle east to secure cheap oil has really paid off hasn't it. am i the only one who recalls 25 dollar barrels of oil during clinton?

10/19/2007 12:34:49 PM

I was reading an article yesterday (can't remember where, I'll link it if I can find it) that said that half of the last $60 increase was due to the falling value of the American dollar.

10/19/2007 12:44:35 PM

but but, isnt that the reason we went to war, for cheap oil? Or was it bc Sadam tried to kill his daddy, or now its because he takes pleasure when people's heads blow off?

Anyway, we need to get this country off this shit. We have enough smart people to develop the next step, we just need big oil dollars and the govt to step aside.

If the prices keep going up and the market is allowed to work, LONG term the greedy will be put out of business. Short term is a bitch though.

10/19/2007 12:44:55 PM

^^ i'm sure a decent amount of it does have to do with the falling dollar. then again, if americans weren't being pushed to consume beyond their means then we wouldn't have a falling dollar to begin with

10/19/2007 12:46:10 PM

Quote :

"With respect to gas prices not rising due to oil prices almost doubling in the past year, I asked my friend who worked at Exxon (in their refineries). He said that for the past several years their margins have been through the roof (thus the record profits) and that they price gas at what people will pay such that they make the “maximum” profit. They discovered that there is a lot of resistance above $3.00/gal and so have kept prices just under that for most areas. They won’t raise prices again until their margins start to fall. Each barrel of oil gets refined into many different products so perhaps they are charging more for heating oil or jet feul these days to keep their margins up? "

10/19/2007 2:53:36 PM

^^ Pushed by who?

^ By definition, they have always charged as much as they possibly could, even when all they managed to charge was 89 cents a gallon back in 1998. Back in 1998, they saw a lot of resistance above 89 cents, so they didn't try raising prices above that, even though doing so was absolutely necessary at the time as their margins were occasionally negative.

[Edited on October 19, 2007 at 3:32 PM. Reason : .,.]

10/19/2007 3:29:07 PM

Quote :

"wow, us going into the middle east to secure cheap oil has really paid off hasn't it. am i the only one who recalls 25 dollar barrels of oil during clinton?"

Because China and India have nothing to do with this.

As I understand it, the price of oil has less to do with the cost of extraction and more to do with the predicted cost of extraction. The currently increasing problems in the middle east and the currently advancing economies in Asia both lead oil companies to hedge their bets against future losses / shortages / restrictions by charging more now.

I could be completely off the mark here though.

10/19/2007 4:44:07 PM

Quote :

"wow, us going into the middle east to secure cheap oil has really paid off hasn't it. am i the only one who recalls 25 dollar barrels of oil during clinton?"

That's only because not enough countries have been attacked!!! Just wait till we go into Iran and Syria... oil will come down again to those levels you fondly remember from the adulterous president's time.

P.S. Why do you hate freedom?

P.P.S. If you don't like it, leave!!!

10/19/2007 8:36:25 PM

the Turkey / Iraq / Kurds deal isn't exactly helping either

10/19/2007 9:36:53 PM

i used maple and got that the average price of gas with a democrat voted in office for the next 8 years will be 1.75

10/19/2007 10:46:45 PM

I wonder why after Hurricane Katrina gas was $3.29 a gallon when the price per barrel was $70 but now its $2.79 a gallon and oil is $90 a barrel. Seems like we were profiteered on and of course Bush will never investigate gouging.

10/19/2007 11:02:57 PM

^Is it the presidents job to look into price gouging?

Besides those idiots on the hill have thier dog and pony show to appease the public every time gas prices jump.. but it does nothing.

i believe the refineries were hit after katrina though.

10/19/2007 11:08:43 PM

wasnt the head of OPEC after the last barrel output increase saying how he couldnt figure why prices were so high and that he didnt think it would last

10/19/2007 11:40:29 PM

barrells of oil are priced in dollars, and the dollar is so weak now when put up against the Euro and just about any other currency...thus, other nations are getting a "deal", i think 1 euro=$1.33

10/19/2007 11:57:12 PM

Quote :

"P.S. Why do you hate freedom? P.P.S. If you don't like it, leave!!!"

if you're joking, rofl

if not....freedom !=control of oil

freedom = the constitution

10/20/2007 2:25:23 AM

i remember back in 2003 i was happy about the iraq war cause i thought our gas would be 40 cents a gallon

10/20/2007 2:26:52 AM

Quote :

"^Is it the presidents job to look into price gouging?"

are you actually arguing in favor of government corruption? because thats how I'm taking it

btw yes, as the executive he's tasked with directing agencies to investigate corruption (via appointing people to the justice department)



[Edited on October 20, 2007 at 2:53 AM. Reason : .]

10/20/2007 2:32:59 AM

Quote :

"I wonder why after Hurricane Katrina gas was $3.29 a gallon when the price per barrel was $70 but now its $2.79 a gallon and oil is $90 a barrel."

You're usually smarter than this. Hurricane Katrina devastated the primary oil-importing and refining port in the eastern United States. I think I remember hearing we'd dropped below 50% of our normal refining capability, its amazing it only went up to $3.29.

That being said, Bush is so deeply in bed with the oil companies that you're right, he'll never investigate whatever price gouging may go on. The more I learn, the more I believe that this guy approached the presidency as a business opportunity more than anything else.

10/20/2007 7:12:12 AM

Quote :

"You're usually smarter than this. Hurricane Katrina devastated the primary oil-importing and refining port in the eastern United States. I think I remember hearing we'd dropped below 50% of our normal refining capability, its amazing it only went up to $3.29."

I was aware that the refinement capacity dropped, but I thought that was reflected in the then record high prices we had at the time. There were some places in Georgia where gas got up to $6.19 a gallon.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2005-09-01-gas-$6-usat_x.htm

10/20/2007 11:51:27 AM

Quote :

"i think 1 euro=$1.33"

1 EUR = USD 1.43

1.33 was months ago.

Also

1 GBP = USD 2.05
1 CAD = USD 1.04

I remember times just a couple to few years ago (depending on currency) when:

1 EUR = 0.8 USD
1 GBP = 1.5 USD
1 CAD = 0.7 USD

10/20/2007 3:43:39 PM

^what kinda things have made it fall so much?

10/20/2007 4:15:31 PM

The financial situation that drove the creation of America's large trade deficit is unwinding, thus the market is acting to eliminate our trade deficit. As such, we need to export more and import less, so the dollar has dropped against other currencies suffering the reverse problem (Europe exports too much and imports too little). As such, thanks to the exchange adjustment American exporters are kicking everyone else's ass: exports have grown 13% over last year, while imports grew a measily 3%.

10/21/2007 5:32:57 PM

ahahahaahahahahahhahaa

I seriously read LoneSnark every time I want to make sure make believe.

A magical world you live in, buddy.

10/21/2007 5:50:46 PM

Quote :

"I seriously read LoneSnark every time I want to make sure make believe. "

I am having difficulty parsing this sentence.

I did misphrase what I said a little bit. "We" are not "as such" must do anything, the millions of individual actors in the world economy are doing everything for us.

[Edited on October 21, 2007 at 6:32 PM. Reason : .,.]

10/21/2007 6:19:56 PM

I was starting to accumulate cash rather than furthur buying into the stock market (in preparation for a potential end of the bull), but i couldn't resist when it shit the bed on friday.

10/21/2007 8:02:16 PM

Quote :

"exports have grown 13% over last year"

Sweet, a percentage. So a super small increase on a super small number is something to herald?

10/21/2007 9:52:23 PM

^^ Buying the day after a sharp drop is only recommended if you believe the slump was a fluke. If there is a real chance that they economy is sliding and not just equity markets then one day's fall is probably just the beginning.

^ What do you want? Economies are huge and involve millions of people; as such, they do not change dramatically overnight or even over a year (this is the explanation for why exchange rates DO change so dramatically over short periods of time: economies respond very slowly and therefore need a lot of stimulus to change course). 13% is friggin' fast when it comes to changing the behavior of so many people.

10/22/2007 12:31:52 AM

13% is a pretty fast rate

the standard equation 70/x = doubling rate

70/13= 5.38 years to double the amount of exports

where did the 13% number come from (citation)?

10/22/2007 12:41:06 AM

Economist Magazine (last weeks issue)

10/22/2007 10:22:40 AM

http://tinyurl.com/3af3g2

10/22/2007 11:18:37 AM