These days it doesn't take much bad news to give an oil futures trader a boner. Hurricane Katrina disrupted the pipelines? Crude spikes (Sure, seems reasonable enough). Saudi Arabia's King Faud died? Crude goes up (he had something to do with oil before he spent the last 10 years of his life incapacitated after a stroke). Fears over Iran (so when does the Iranian president have anything good to say in our direction?), North Korea (zzzz.....) and Iraq (if you're just finding fear in this quagmire now, congratulations on the end of your coma)....The point is, they don't need a good reason to send crude through the roof. They just do it.
But now BP shuts down its Prudhoe Bay oil field because of extreme negligence in maintenance. Energy Secretary says she should be OK ... and prices drop? That would seem like mighty good reason to raise prices.
I paid $2.69 a gallon just east of Cambridge, Ohio yesterday, the lower rate in months. Explain, explain, ye impotent futures traders....
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