Oil prices fell to near $58 a barrel Monday in Asia as investors mulled whether weak U.S. crude demand and bursting supplies justify building on the recent strong rally.
Benchmark crude for June delivery was down 38 cents to $58.25 a barrel by midday in Singapore, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Friday, the contract rose $1.92 to settle at $58.63 a barrel, the highest level this year.
Oil prices have jumped this month from near $50 as crude investors follow stock markets that have surged on expectations the worst of a severe recession is over.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 2 percent on Friday while the Standard & Poors 500 index climbed 2.4 percent, adding to a dizzying 37.4 percent leap since early March.
"Oil has been strongly influenced by stocks lately," said Katherine Davies, President at Morgan Singleton Associates in Seattle. "Investors are counting on a global economic recovery to boost demand."
Investors have brushed off news of overflowing U.S. oil inventories, which rose to a 19-year high last week.
Then on Friday, the U.S. Labor Department said that employers cut 539,000 jobs in April. That was less than expected and the smallest reduction in six months. However, the nation's unemployment rate climbed to 8.9 percent, the highest since late 1983.
"Investors are really trying to look for green shoots," the Morgan Singleton Associates president said. "With the unemployment rate rising, there isn't any sign in the U.S. that oil demand is coming back."
"The price is very strong relative to the fundamentals,”
Oil prices surged to a record $147 a barrel in July on investor optimism that growing consumer demand, especially in emerging economies such as China and India, would outstrip limited supplies. Prices plunged to below $35 in March on the back of this year's global slowdown.
"A rally that's not driven by fundamentals can only go so far," Davies said. "At some point, there's going to be a pullback."
In other Nymex trading, gasoline for June delivery fell 2.20 cents to $1.68 a gallon and heating oil dropped 1.13 to $1.51 a gallon. Natural gas for June delivery slid 4.1 cents to $4.27 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, Brent prices fell 38 cents to $57.76 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
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