Saturday, July 19, 2008

Oil falls for fourth straight session

Oil prices saw a fourth consecutive losing session on Friday as crude finished a week that saw it tumble more than $16 US a barrel.

Light, sweet crude for August delivery ended this week at $128.88 after losing 41 cents on Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The Friday decline followed tumbles of $5.31 on Thursday, $4.14 on Wednesday and a drop of $6.44 on Tuesday.

Just last week, crude traded above $147 a barrel.

While experts are not rushing to declare that the run that has seen oil prices roughly double in a year may be over, some were sounding notes of caution.

"If this is not the bubble's implosion, then it's a reasonable facsimile," said analyst and trader Stephen Schork in daily market commentary.

"Perhaps all we have witnessed was a replay of last August's subprime induced sell-off. Time will tell. Nevertheless, for the time being we no longer care to hold a bullish view," Schork said.

Oil's big fall has translated into a small decline at the gas pumps.

The gasbuddy.com website said the average price in Canada for a litre of regular unleaded gasoline on Friday was $1.37871, down from $1.38968 on Thursday, and off from $1.39559 a week earlier.

With files from Associated Press

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