Oil Futures Rise To Highest Level In A Month Due to Events In The Mideast

Rigzone is reporting:

Oil futures settled at their highest level in a month Monday, after escalating violence in Syria stoked concerns about a wider conflict that could imperil oil supplies in the region.

Light, sweet crude for June delivery settled 55 cents, or 0.6%, higher at $96.16 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest front-month settlement since April 2. Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange rose $1.27, or 1.2%, to $105.46 a barrel.

Futures climbed following reports over the weekend that Israel had launched two air strikes against Syria, the latest sign that the two-year-old civil war is spilling over into neighboring countries.

Although Syria isn't a major oil producer, the fighting there has oil traders on guard for the possibility that it widens into a broader war affecting countries that do export major volumes of oil. Reports said Israel had struck weapons bound for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, a group that is closely associated with Iran.

This morning, there was another story that the US Navy was starting to lay mines, starting to take action to safeguard the Strait of Hormuz.

This morning, one of the first stories I posted was a Yahoo!Finance News story suggesting that the rising price of oil was due to "great" jobs report last week. I noted at the time that was crazy. Economists and analysts knew what the "great" numbers really meant. Whether or not one agrees with the economists or analysts about the jobs report, that was "old" news, as Art Carney would say. That "great" jobs report was oh, so, last week.

The price of oil is rising because of events in the Mideast, not because of any "great" jobs report last week.

We should start seeing the usual stories about the potential spike in oil prices if "war" breaks out in the Mideast any day now. If a war does break out in the Mideast, maybe this would be a good time for President Obama to approve the Keystone XL pipeline: a) national emergency; and, b) the mainstream media would be distracted by what's going on overseas.