(CFTC)Regulators look into possible price manipulation in oil market (6mos into investigation)

Source: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal regulators are six months into a wide-ranging investigation of U.S. oil markets, with a focus on possible price manipulation.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Thursday it started the probe in December and is taking the unusual step of publicizing it "because of today's unprecedented market conditions."

~snip~
Crude prices, which on Thursday hovered around $127 a barrel, have risen more than 42% since early December. Gasoline prices are nearing a national average of $4 a gallon, up from about $3.20 a year ago.

The commission said details of the investigation remain confidential, but announced a handful of other initiatives designed to increase transparency of U.S. and international energy futures markets.

For example, the CFTC said it will immediately require monthly reports from institutional investors who manage funds designed to mimic the price of crude oil and other energy futures. The goal, the agency said, is to identify the amount of such index trading and to "ensure that this type of trading activity is not adversely impacting the price discovery process."




Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2008-05-29-oil-markets_N.htm?csp=34

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Press release here:
CFTC Announces Multiple Energy Market Initiatives

http://www.cftc.gov/newsroom/generalpressreleases/2008/pr5503-08.html

Lawmaker quizzes regulators on oil speculators

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A leading U.S. senator on Tuesday pressed the top futures market regulator for more information about speculation by big investment funds in crude oil futures and other energy markets.

U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, chairman of the U.S. Senate Energy Committee, said Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) officials provided "glaringly incomplete" data to back up testimony that speculative trading is not the chief reason behind crude oil's rise above $135 a barrel.

CFTC experts testified that market forces are primarily responsible for the rising price of oil, although investors may be profiting from the trend.

Bingaman, a New Mexico Democrat, sent acting CFTC chairman Walter Lukken a letter asking why the agency classifies large investment banks and other swap dealers as commercial traders -- the same category it uses for more traditional investors in the physical oil market such as oil companies and airlines.

"The practice of including investment banks in the commercial participant category calls into question the CFTC's continued assertion that non-commercial participants, or speculators, follow rather than lead oil price movements," Bingaman wrote in the letter.

more:http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKN2739637720080527

Why is it that when oil goes up by a dollar, they raised it by ten cents a gallon, but when it goes down by two dollars, the price goes down only two cents?

GREED!

Gasoline does not always fall or rise at the same rate as crude oil. In fact, today, crude fell by over 4 dollars a barrel, yet gasoline only fell 2 cents on the NYMEX.

it's a significant drop and it's about damn time.

They should have started an investigation years ago. I bet that revealing that news had a lot do do with the price drop and them admitting to "temporary" delays in unloading tankers. Without the revelation of an investigation nobody would have heard a thing about the "delay"!

I hope heads roll on this, but I doubt it very much. The only change will come is when wall street no longer has Bush in office to back their shady deals!

Source: USA Today

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal regulators are six months into a wide-ranging investigation of U.S. oil markets, with a focus on possible price manipulation.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Thursday it started the probe in December and is taking the unusual step of publicizing it "because of today's unprecedented market conditions."

Crude prices, which on Thursday hovered around $127 a barrel, have risen more than 42% since early December. Gasoline prices are nearing a national average of $4 a gallon, up from about $3.20 a year ago.

The commission said details of the investigation remain confidential, but announced a handful of other initiatives designed to increase transparency of U.S. and international energy futures markets.

For example, the CFTC said it will immediately require monthly reports from institutional investors who manage funds designed to mimic the price of crude oil and other energy futures. The goal, the agency said, is to identify the amount of such index trading and to "ensure that this type of trading activity is not adversely impacting the price discovery process."

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2008-05-29-oil-markets_N.htm

Is there really any competition to sell fuel in the US?

If they had publicized the investigation right from the start the market conditions wouldnt have deteriorated to the point where oil is now above $125.

duh

Excuse me a moment....

:banghead: