Link: Bloomberg.com:
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This is the culmination of everything that we talked about last year,'' said John Kilduff, vice president of risk management at MF Global Ltd. in New York.Various geopolitical problems have deteriorated overnight, in particular Nigeria and Pakistan. Commodities, and in particular oil, have become safe havens in a dangerous world.''Three-figure prices may bring energy costs near the tipping point that will cause global economic growth to falter. China has more than doubled oil use since New York crude dropped to this century's low of $16.70 a barrel on Nov. 19, 2001. That's soaked up most of the world's spare production capacity amid supply cuts in Nigeria, Iraq and Venezuela.
Crude oil for February delivery rose $4.02, or 4.2 percent, to $100 a barrel at 12:10 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest since trading began in 1983. Prices were up $3.30, or 3.4 percent, to $99.28 a barrel at 12:47 p.m.
This is an important psychological number,'' said Rick Mueller, an analyst with Energy Security Analysis Inc. in Wakefield, Massachusetts.Everyone has been expecting this since early December.''Prices on Oct. 15 passed the previous all-time inflation- adjusted record. Measured in today's dollars, prices in 1981 rose as high as $84.73 after a decade of Middle East instability including the Arab-Israeli war in 1973, the Iranian revolution in 1979 and the Iran-Iraq war that began in 1980....
