Oil falls below $100; gasoline futures sink 8%

[tridim]

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Losses in energy futures intensified Wednesday afternoon, with crude oil dropping more than 4% to trade below $100 a barrel and gasoline plunging more than 8% after CME Group raised daily trading limits for certain energy contracts.

Prices also came under pressure after a U.S. government report showed a bigger-than-expected increase in oil inventories.

Crude for June delivery /quotes/comstock/21n!f:cl\m11 CLM11 -4.48% declined $4.35, or 4.2%, to $99.55 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after dipping as low as $98.45.

CME Group /quotes/comstock/15*!cme/quotes/nls/cme CME -0.23% briefly halted trading in oil, heating-oil and gasoline futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange after the June gasoline contract hit its daily price limit. The CME also boosted daily price limits for crude oil to $20 and for heating oil and gasoline to 50 cents.

More: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/crude-futures-hold-above-103-ahead-us-update-2011-05-11?siteid=yhoof

Oil is crashing for the second time in a week. Heard about this on the TV "news" lately?

[tnlurker]

1. Gas went down $.01 today for my usual station

About a month ago when oil was shooting up instead of down they went up $.20 in one day.

[tridim]

2. It's still creeping up slowly in my kansas city neighborhood.

It's obvious that pump price has nothing to do with any economic indicator whatsoever. Every middleman in the chain is a crook.

If it did gas would be down below $2.50.

[Betty]

3. yet the price at the pump won't budge

or in fact will continue to rise.

[no_hypocrisy]

8. My theory: the station owners bought more than one tanker at the high price.

They're obligated to pay that price and accept delivery until the next contract. And if they paid more than it's worth now, that price is passed on to consumers.

[Newsjock]

4. And the stock markets are all 'Woe is us'

Proving yet again that, at least in this case, what's good for Wall Street is bad for America.

[Trajan]

5. The eye of scrutiny is upon them ...

This has happened before .... Whenever someone actually threatens to investigate them, prices suddenly collapse ...

Yeah ... Market forces at work you say ? ... Hmmmm .. Libya still at war ? ... CHECK ! ...

I know oil reserves are rising, and sure, that has 'an effect', but oil stocks have risen before without creating downward pressure on prices.

The steely eye of scrutiny, and the threats of lost 'tax favors' might be having an effect here ....

[tridim]

7. It works a whole lot better than "jawboning" OPEC and the Saudis.

Maybe Holder's investigation is uncovering stuff we don't yet know about? Stay tuned.

[girl gone mad]

9. His investigation should start at the Federal Reserve..

and end at the Treasury Department.

[Drale]

6. It's really weird a few stations around me

went up 10 cents, these stations are usually the highest in the area, and some went down 10 cents.