Euro pulls down oil prices as its struggles continue against the US dollar
Crude oil saw its prices declining again for two straight days on Tuesday as global markets were rubbed in by the jittery European economic conditions with the Euro losing out to the mighty dollar as investors continue to shun the continent on worries of further debt crisis-related financial issues.
Oil prices immediately retreated on a softening Euro as German factories substantially pared down their orders in July that led to plunging future deliveries, marking the end of Standard & Poor's 500 index' eight weeks run of lording over the market as economic indicators pointed to strong possibility of a sluggish recovery in Europe.
BNP Paribas Commodity Inc broker Tom Bentz flatly declared that the Euro is in a struggle to regain its former self and at this stage, the US dollar has so far managed to upstage the currency in every respects, stressing that "its helping to put some pressure on oil."
Crude deliveries for October gave up US 51 cents or 0.7 percent on the same day and closed at $US74.09 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange as the commodity incurred a record day-long declines last seen in August 31 with price dips of up to 6.6 percent being absorbed so far this year.
So far accumulating declines of up to 1.6 percent since the start of September this year, the Euro again was further pushed back by 1.5 percent against the US dollar to $US1.2688 in New York, coming from its $US1.2876 level from the previous trading day.
Analysts said that the retreats suffered by the Euro sowed discouragement on investors who in turn shunned the commodities, believing that their attraction as wise investment options were in tatters for now.
Markets also saw their numbers shedding some points with the S&P 500 finally halting its four-day run of climbs as it lost 1.1 percent to settle at 1092.54 while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gave back 102.06 points to close at 10,345.87.