Reply #5: Oil falls below $50 as investors eye US earnings

[ozymandius]

SINGAPORE – Oil prices fell below $50 a barrel Monday in Asia as investors braced for a slew of U.S. corporate earnings reports this week that could temper optimism about global economic recovery.

Benchmark crude for May delivery fell 79 cents to $49.54 a barrel by midafternoon in Singapore in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract Friday rose 35 cents to settle at $50.33.

Oil prices have played peek-a-boo with $50 a barrel this month after dropping below $35 in February as investors struggle to decipher how the economy will perform in the second half.

....

In other Nymex trading, gasoline for May delivery fell 2.51 cents to $1.47 a gallon and heating oil fell 1.25 cents to $1.41 a gallon. Natural gas for May delivery was steady at $3.73 per 1,000 cubic feet.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/oil_prices