Oil slips below $62 as traders eye company results

[July 17, 2009]  VIENNA (AP) -- Oil prices slipped below $62 a barrel Friday, as investors weighed mostly positive second quarter corporate results against signs of sluggish crude demand.

Benchmark crude for August delivery was down 29 cents to $61.73 a barrel by late noon European electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Thursday, the contract added 48 cents to settle at $62.02.

Oil has rallied from $58.78 a barrel last week as companies such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Intel Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. beat analyst expectations for second quarter earnings.

Investors will be looking to reports from General Electric Co., Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. on Friday

"It looks like oil has some friends around $60," said Toby Hassall, an analyst with investment firm Commodity Warrants Australia in Sydney. "The positive turn on equities has helped."

"There's been a renewed bout of confidence this week that corporate earnings and the economy are turning around."

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 1.1 percent Thursday.

Crude is still off an eight-month high of $73.23 a barrel on June 30 as weak U.S. gasoline demand so far this summer has dampened investor optimism.

"What we've seen the last few weeks has been a dose of reality," Hassall said. "Oil's fundamentals really haven't shown much improvement."

Still, as the feeling grows that the worst is over for the global economy, oil could soon be testing its June high.

"It is now up to the bears to break through," wrote trader and analyst Stephen Schork, in his Schork Report. "If they don't, then it is $75 here we come."

In other Nymex trading, gasoline for August delivery was steady at $1.71 a gallon and heating oil dipped by nearly 2 cents to fetch $1.58. Natural gas for August delivery slid by close to 9 cents to $3.581 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, Brent prices rose 41 cents to $63.34 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

[Associated Press; By GEORGE JAHN]

Associated Press writer Alex Kennedy contributed to this report from Singapore.

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