Crude moved up slightly from Thursday but showed a large increase from the middle of the week and a more moderate increase from last week's settlement. The gyrations and volatility of the market are the result of prices following events in Europe, primarily the seemingly inevitable Greek sovereign debt default that Chancellor Merkel and President Sarkozy are trying to avert. However, the problem is Greece. The Greeks are unwilling to pay taxes but they do wish to enjoy their lifestyle especially highly paid retirement. Merkel and Sarkozy now have more problems as Italy and Spain were given credit downgrades yesterday.
Early in the trading day, the Labor Department announced the creation of 103,000 new private sector jobs but the unemployment rate was unmoved at 9.1%. Then came the news that 45,000 of those new jobs were actually old jobs at Verizon being filled by returning stikers and the jobs picture did not look as promising.
For the week, WTI +$3.78, $82.98; Brent +$3.32, $105.70; RBOB +2.16¢, $2.6476; HO +6.4¢, $2.8588.
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