**Editor’s Note Update: Be sure to read Energy and Capital’s up-to-date resource page on Brent crude oil prices.
Oil prices shoot to above $100 per barrel on Tuesday as rumors surfaced that Iran closed a Middle Eastern oil-shipping channel.
There were speculations that oil supplies from Iran would be disrupted because of a drill to close the Strait of Hormuz. This straight is the most important oil-shipping channel in the world. Oil prices jumped 2 percent after theses rumors leaked out.
Benchmark crude on Tuesday rose by $2.15, 2.2 percent, to $99.92 per barrel in New York. Brent crude rose $1.61 to $108.69 a barrel in London.
The speculations have since proven to be false. “There are no headlines to explain this move,” said Stephen Schork, president of Schork Group Inc. in Villanova, Pennsylvania, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. “One has to look at the usual suspects. It was probably a fat-fingered mistake or a margin call.”
OPEC has reduce its 2012 forecast for the world’s crude-oil demand, predicting a possible global economic decline. The IEA has also reduced its 2012 demand forecast based on economic worries.
According to The Wall Street Journal, November retail sales in the U.S. were less than expected, which signaled a weak start to the usually busy holiday shopping season.
That’s all for now,
Cori
