Crude tops $116 in volatile trading

Crude oil for May delivery hit an all time high of $116.10 per barrel in intraday trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) today.

Earlier, West Texas Intermediate dropped to an intraday low of $112.72.

ICE Brent was trading at $112.74/bbl in lunchtime trading. Earlier in the week the contract for June delivery hit a new high of $113.38/bbl.

Analysts regard the weak US dollar as a key driver enabling crude oil to continue posting fresh highs.

Supply worries also came to the fore after the main militant group in Nigeria's oil- rich region said it sabotaged a pipeline operated by a unit of Royal Dutch Shell on Friday.

Others note that tight US stockpiles are also adding to the bullish view. "US stockpiles are becoming a bit strained, when they should be actively replenishing," said MFGlobal's Mike Fitzpatrick in a research note. "The usual seasonal spate of refinery glitches are underway, so the bulls seems to still be holding a winning hand."

However, others pointed to softening demand growth in the near future.

Deutsche Bank reduced its global demand growth forecast for 2008 from 1.39mmb/d to 1.16mmb/d, therefore lower than the OPEC, IEA and DOE estimates.

"We remain concerned that [China and India] remain exposed to rising international commodity prices and inflation, and that this could result in monetary tightening and downside risks to growth," said chief energy economist Adam Sieminski.

"Since non-OECD Asia is the locus of the strongest demand growth in virtually every oil model, we remain cautious about the IEA's "case for decoupling."

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Stemming the tide of rising FX settlement risk

As the trading of emerging markets currencies gathers pace and broader uncertainty sweeps across financial markets, CLS is exploring alternative services designed to mitigate settlement risk for the FX market

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