Market Close: Sep 30 Down
Sep 30th, 2014 by loren
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Crude-oil futures closed Tuesday at their lowest level since November 2012 on its biggest one-day drop in nearly 23 months.
Light, sweet crude futures for delivery in November declined $3.41, or 3.6%, to settle at $91.16 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It last closed this low on Nov. 7. 2012. The front-month contract slid 5% in September, its worst monthly performance since July.
Slack demand for oil, a slew of weak macroeconomic data out of China and the eurozone, a stronger dollar as well as plentiful supplies that include surging output from Libya dragged prices lower in the quarter. The front-month contract skidded more than 13% over three months, the largest quarterly drop since the second quarter of 2012. November Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange lost $2.53, or 2.6%, to settle at $94.67 a barrel, the lowest settlement since June 2012. On the quarter, Brent plummeted 16% — also the worst quarterly decline since the second quarter of 2012. Brent slid 8.3% in September, its steepest monthly decline since May 2012.
In a fresh signs of the tensions between plentiful supplies and softer-than-expected demand, a Reuters survey earlier Tuesday showed OPEC output in September at its highest level in nearly two years, led Libya as well as Saudi Arabia and other Gulf oil-exporting countries. Meanwhile, HSBC’s China Manufacturing PMI was unchanged at a final reading of 50.2 in September from August, indicating sluggish growth in the world’s second-largest economy.
Elsewhere in the energy complex, prices also dropped sharply over the quarter.