Oil mixed in Asian trade
SINGAPORE: Oil was mixed in Asian trade Tuesday as lingering uncertainty over Greece's debt crisis tempered support from a rebound in US stocks.
New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate light sweet crude for July delivery, rose 54 cents to $93.80 a barrel, while Brent North Sea crude for August eased 16 cents to $111.53.
Phillip Futures said in a report that a late-session bounce on Wall Street helped push oil higher, but added that "the gain was capped as there is continued uncertainty on how the Greek debt crisis could be resolved."
Fatih Birol, the chief economist of the Paris-based International Energy Agency, said crude prices at current levels can hold back the global economic recovery.
"My worry is that the current prices (are) a major risk for the global economic recovery and I'm very worried to see the same movie that we saw in the year 2008," Birol said at a conference in Singapore.
"I think if they stay so, there is a strong potential we see a risk that the high prices, the high oil prices can derail the economic recovery," he said.
Europe gave Greece a two-week deadline on Monday to drive through painful new austerity measures in order to gain access to emergency funds needed to avert a default.
They did so to allow Prime Minister George Papandreou's government time to win a confidence vote called for Tuesday, and again mobilise a wafer-thin majority on June 28 to steer the austerity cuts into legislation.
As Greece faced strikes and power cuts, eurozone governments decided to meet again on July 3 to decide on emergency cash and work out the details of a second bailout worth more than 100 billion euros ($156 billion).
The International Monetary Fund has warned decisive action is needed to prevent the crisis from spreading throughout the 17-nation eurozone and beyond.
"All eyes will be on the vote of confidence in parliament against PM George Papandreou, who has lost popular support because of the crisis," DBS Bank said in a market commentary.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011
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