John Wilen of the Associated Press wrote on August 13, 2007 that energy investors have been keeping one eye on their stocks, which rose in early trading on news that central banks are taking steps to increase liquidity and help economies avoid fallout from the worsening sub-prime mortgage-related credit crunch, said Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch & Associates in Galena, Ill.
“We're getting a little lift from equities,” Ritterbusch said, yet there are oil prices that have also been following gasoline futures, which rose on scattered reports of refinery outages over the August 2007 weekend. “We've had a couple refinery issues that are driving a little strength into gasoline,” Ritterbusch said, as well as a bit of nervousness about the possibility of a tropical storm or hurricane forming in the Atlantic which is also underpinned prices, the analyst said.
Light, sweet crude for September delivery rose $1.64 to $73.11 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and September gasoline jumped 4.22 cents to $1.997 a gallon.
In London, September Brent crude rose $1.42 to $71.81 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
At the pump, meanwhile, the national average price of a gallon of gas fell 3.1 cents over the weekend to $2.77, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Retail gas prices, which typically lag the futures market, peaked at $3.227 in late May on concerns the refining industry would be unable to supply enough gasoline to meet demand during the peak summer driving season.
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