Oil falls for fifth time to near $84

Oil prices fell for a fifth day to near $84 a barrel Tuesday in Asia as traders mulled whether a slowly recovering U.S. economy justified the recent two-month, 25 percent crude rally.

Benchmark crude for May delivery was down 24 cents to $84.10 a barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract lost 58 cents to settle at $84.34 on Monday.

Crude jumped to above $87 a barrel last week from $69 in early February on investor expectations tepid U.S. crude demand will eventually catch up with a recovering economy. U.S. crude inventories have remained high, but some analysts were cheered by signs global economic growth is strengthening.

“Recent economic news has been reassuring, reinforcing the notion of a broadening recovery which we expect will continue to support energy and industrial metals prices going forward,” Goldman Sachs said in a report.

Goldman said it expects crude to rise to $94.50 a barrel in three months and $99 in 12 months.

In other Nymex trading in May contracts, heating oil was steady at $2.218 a gallon, and gasoline held at $2.295 a gallon. Natural gas fell 1.4 cents to $3.994 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, Brent crude was up 3 cents at $84.80 on the ICE futures exchange.

Source: AP