Oil below $77 as Greece crisis gnaws at confidence
BANGKOK (October 4, 2011): Oil slid below $77 a barrel on Tuesday in Asia as fears intensified that Greece may not be able to crawl out from beneath a mountain of debt without defaulting.
Benchmark crude for November delivery was down 92 cents to $76.70 per barrel at midday Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange its lowest since late September 2010. Benchmark crude fell $1.59, or 2 per cent, to close at .
61 per barrel in New York on Monday.
In London, Brent crude fell 81 cents to $100.90 on the ICE Futures Exchange.
Investor concerns about Greece were heightened when the debt-strapped country said over the weekend it will miss its lower budget deficit targets even after severe cost-cutting. Despite the shortcoming, Europe pledged to loan Greece money to help pay its upcoming bills, but that failed to reassure stock and commodity markets.
Without more financial aid, Greece says it will start running out of money in two weeks. A Greek default could spread to nearby countries and possibly trigger widespread banking problems. That would hamper world energy demand as lending slows and businesses cut spending.
“We have been mired in Greece since the second or third week of July and it has been a topic of conversation in every week or every other week since then,” analysts at Cameron Hanover said in a report.
“Germany’s parliament last week ratified an aid package agreed upon in July, but prices weakened as the week wore on as investors realized that last week’s vote was just the beginning.” (AP)
