June 03, 2008 at 11:00 am by Tom Lydon
After Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s comments this morning, oil prices retreated along with their related exchange traded funds (ETFs).
The price for a barrel fell to $125.76. The record price now stands at $135.09, reached on May 22, reports John Wilen for the Associated Press. Concerns about declining demand for oil and gas are weighing on prices, analysts say. A survey recently found that 90% of Americans have made changes in their daily lives to offset high energy prices.
Gas prices seem to have stalled out somewhat, as well. But don’t get too excited just yet: regular gas still rose and hit a new record of $3.978 today.
The question we’re all asking, though, is "Will gas hit $5?"
Yes, it will.
Wait, no it won’t.
And that about sums up the expert opinions on the matter.
It’s no shock that with rising prices, energy ETFs have been doing very well in the last year, reports Billy Fisher for The Street. For example, United States Oil (USO) is up 113.8% in one year. United States Natural Gas (UNG) is one of the top-performing funds year-to-date, up 56.4%.
Other top energy funds so far this year are:
- iPath DJ AIG Energy TR Sub-Index ETN (JJE): up 43.3%
- PowerShares DB Energy (DBE): up 41.4%
- PowerShares DB Oil (DBO): up 36.7%
- ELEMENTS Rogers International Commodity Energy ETN (RJN): up 38.8%
Tags | Energy, ETNs, Federal Reserve, Gas, Natural Gas, Oil, UNG, USO
