Oil Breaks $140 per Barrel and Market Drops 300 Points

[Apoptosis]

Just saw this on Yahoo

Oil futures shot above $140 Thursday after OPEC's president said oil prices could rise well above $150 a barrel this year and Libya said it may cut oil production.

Light, sweet crude for August delivery rose as high as $140.05 in afternoon trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange

Reason:

Chakib Khelil, president of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, said he believes oil prices could rise to between $150 and $170 a barrel this summer before declining later in the year. Khelil said he doesn't think prices will reach $200 a barrel.

Khelil joins a long list of forecasters who have made bold oil price predictions this year. Each new forecast -- such as Goldman Sachs' recent prediction that prices could rise as high as $200 -- causes a jump in prices as speculative buyers are drawn into the market.

OPEC needs to shut up on speculation!

[Alathald]

Why is this stuff even legal?

[martini161]

no

[camaroguy1998]

IMHO, speculators should be treated just like inside traders!
They should be held accountable if they or anyone they know makes a dime off what they say!

[Apoptosis]

I agree half the price increases these days are from speculators.... We need to make some laws to ban profiting from oil (ie: ban oil hedging)

[martini161]

I agree half the price increases these days are from speculators.... We need to make some laws to ban profiting from oil (ie: ban oil hedging)

i love to talk about stuff like that and all, but the sad truth is that if you did that my kids aint goin to college

[Apoptosis]

Looks like this week is off to a bad start -

Meanwhile light, sweet crude for August delivery rose $2.29 to $142.50 a barrel at 9:13 a.m. ET in overseas electronic trading. Earlier, crude prices hit $143.67 a barrel, setting a new trading record more than 50% above prices at the end of 2007.

Source - http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/30/news/ec ... /index.htm

[vbironchef]

Oil can't seem to make up it's mind. One hour it's up, the next it's down. There must be alot of people pushing buttons. All I know is that gas prices take a whole lot longer to go down than up. What's up with that!

[vicaphit]

No! Stop it! Bad oil companies!

[bmaverick]

I agree half the price increases these days are from speculators.... We need to make some laws to ban profiting from oil (ie: ban oil hedging)

i love to talk about stuff like that and all, but the sad truth is that if you did that my kids aint goin to college

What your kids going to college to become oil speculators? Sounds like a very profitable job to me.

[martini161]

by the time there out hopefully itll be hydrogen speculating

[vbironchef]

Bulls make money,Bears make money, and Hogs get slaughtered! Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Be carefull.

[Apoptosis]

Reached $146 today... Almost at the $150 mark that they predicted for fourth of July nearly two months ago.

[bmaverick]

Owning a horse keeps getting cheaper and cheaper by the day.

No vehicle insurance
No registration
No plates
No oil changes
No gas
No tires to replace, just shoes.

Yes has gas
Yes eats like a horse
Yes needs care in a different way from a vehicle
Gets 40 miles to the next watering hole

[vicaphit]

A lot of upkeep though, and they only last about 20 years.

Your gardens will be awesome though!

[skier]

A lot of upkeep though, and they only last about 20 years.

you say that like cars last more than 20

even though we have 1932 Model A in perfect condition

[vicaphit]

Well, we had a 15 year old honda accord that was running perfectly. I'm sure if we hadn't traded it in and gotten something newer it would still be going strong.

[skier]

Well, we had a 15 year old honda accord that was running perfectly. I'm sure if we hadn't traded it in and gotten something newer it would still be going strong.

you can't tell me you hadn't replaced anything but normal maintenance on it, our '93 sable has had: replaced battery a couple times, cracked head, head gasket leak, power steering pump not working right, a little bit of body work, demolished motor mounts several times, replaced the heater core, replaced the radiator, replaced temp sensor and three days ago a replaced starter, and its been in a garage when not in use for the 15 years so far so the body is better than anything 5 years newer

[bubba]

I had a '83 suburban with a 350 and 4 barrel carb, wasn't touched outside of normal maintenance until it hit little over 250,000 miles. Rebuilt the engine, ran for another 100k until it started to have electrical problems, it started eating alternators (about one a month) I was really pushing the warranty from Auto Zone. Got to the point if the counter guy seen me pull in to the parking lot he had my alternator on the counter. Got to the point I could change it in less than 10 minutes in the parking lot. Got rid of it around '99-2000, man I miss that old thing.... don't miss feeding it though. at most 10 mpg no matter what I was hauling. Replaced the battery about every 4 years, dad was/is a firm believer in trickle chargers. He runs little solar panel trickle charger in his diesel and got 7 years out of his stock battery's, just replaced them last month.

I was listening to the Wall Street journal report on the radio this morning on the way into work, they are saying $200 a barrel by fall and to expect $6/gal for gas. They are saying the China is to blame for stock piling fuel so there isn't a shortage for the Olympics and they also switched to burning oil for electricity to make the air cleaner for the Olympics. They said after that the prices COULD go down slowly if there isn't any more issues in the middle east.