SALON

Monday, Jun 11, 2012 5:45 AM UTC

Oil above $86 as Spain gets funds to rescue banks

By

Topics: From the Wires,

SINGAPORE (AP) — Oil jumped above $86 a barrel Monday in Asia after Europe offered Spain a $125 billion rescue loan for its troubled banks.

Benchmark oil for July delivery was up $2.00 to $86.10 per barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 72 cents to settle at $84.10 in New York on Friday.

In London, Brent crude for July delivery was up $2.09 at $100.56 per barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Over the weekend, the 17 countries that use the euro common currency pledged to lend Spain funds to bailout out its faltering banks. Oil has dropped from $106 last month as Spain’s banking crisis threatened to worsen Europe’s economic slowdown, which would weaken demand for crude.

The financial lifeline for Spain helped strengthen the euro to $1.2635 from $1.2507 late Friday in New York. A weaker dollar makes commodities priced in dollars less expensive for investors with other currencies.

“Over the last three months we have seen a significant reemergence of the link between the euro and oil prices,” energy trader and consultant The Schork Group said in a report. “Thus, strength in the euro likely means support for oil prices.”

A warning from Iran that negotiations over its nuclear program could stall also helped raise oil prices. Ali Bagheri, Iran’s No. 2 nuclear negotiator, said Western powers must explain what concessions it will offer to Iran in return for a halt to upgrading enriched uranium to weapons grade, according to official IRNA news agency Sunday.

Iran and six world powers are scheduled for talks in Moscow on June 18.

Iran says it is developing a nuclear program for peaceful purposes. In exchange for discussing enrichment, Iran wants the West to ease sanctions which have made exporting its crude more difficult.

In other energy trading, heating oil was up 4.6 cents at $2.72 per gallon while gasoline futures rose 4.7 cents at $2.73 per gallon. Natural gas slid 3 cents at $2.27 per 1,000 cubic feet.

___

Follow Alex Kennedy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/alexkennedy_ap

More Alex Kennedy.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments are not enabled for this story.

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
FBI reportedly joins Bachmann campaign finance probe
215 points216 points | 9 comments
vote
Jon Karl makes things worse: He regrets “inaccurate” Benghazi email but says his story based on it “still entirely stands.” Really. ABC News?
186 points187 points | 29 comments
vote
Paul Krugman’s right: Austerity kills. "In an economy where we’re all in the same boat, one person’s spending is another person’s income. So when the government cuts spending, it reduces people’s income, leading to less business, more unemployment, and a vicious spiral of slowing down the economy."
160 points161 points | 96 comments
vote
“Jodorowsky’s Dune”: The sci-fi classic that never was.
73 points74 points | 16 comments
vote
Doug Henwood: Capitalism Thrives on Class Exploitation
44 points45 points | 5 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations