Oil falls for first time in 10 sessions

…Many analysts blame oil’s recent rise on speculative investing. Kloza noted that nearly 600 million barrels of benchmark West Texas crude oil were traded Thursday on the Nymex, but that actual daily production of West Texas crude is only about 200,000 barrels.

Tropical weather has also been widely cited as supporting prices. Humberto’s rapid growth in the Gulf and shuttering of three refineries drove gas futures higher on Thursday. On Friday, power had been restored to at least two of the affected refineries, and officials said they could be back at full capacity by next week.


But Ingrid strengthened Friday morning, driving October natural gas futures up 25 cents to settle at $6.279 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Analysts were as perplexed by Ingrid’s effect on prices as they have been by oil’s rally, given forecasts that the storm appears headed well to the east of Florida, away from critical oil and gas infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico.

“If traders are reacting to the headlines on Tropical Storm Ingrid, we think they need to read the details, since that storm looks like it will head toward Bermuda,” Evans said.

Forecasts also call for Ingrid to weaken and possibly deteriorate over the next several days.

“It just shows you … how scared this market is of hurricanes,” said Schork.

Yahoo