Oil Down, Gas Up on Labor, Energy Data

Oil and natural gas are going opposite ways this morning, driven by unemployment and energy data, respectively.

Natural gas is jumping, rising as high as 5.89 on Nymex for natural gas futures for delivery in January. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration this morning said natural gas stockpiles showed a drawdown of 200 billion cubic feet last week, versus an expected 178 billion cubic feet. (This follows last week’s stronger-than-expected drawdown.)

So much for ExxonMobil’s (XOM) theory natural gas prices will stay low?

Menatime, light sweet crude oil futures for delivery January are down 53 cents at $72.13 per barrel, after the U.S Department of Labor said first-time claims for unemployment rose 7,000 last week, to 480,000, whereas analysts had expected the figure to decline by about 6,000.