Oil Prices, Stock Market | featured news

An unexpected jump in claims for unemployment benefits and plummeting oil prices are driving stocks lower in early trading Thursday.

Congress should take steps to limit speculation in oil markets, which has boosted prices as much as 30 percent, a new report from the Democratic staff of a House of Representatives oversight committee said on Monday.

Rex Tillerson, the boss of ExxonMobil admitted last week that the price of oil–based purely on supply and demand- should be in the $60 to $70 a barrel range. The reason it’s above $100 a barrel, Tillerson explained, is due to the oil majors using futures contracts to lock in current high prices, and speculation that is engineered by the high-frequency trading of quantitative hedge funds.

Oil prices tumbled nearly 5 percent on Wednesday, as easing supply concerns sent gasoline into a tailspin that briefly forced trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange to stop.

Markets calmed Thursday, opening broadly higher in New York. Markets regained their losses Thursday, after falling nearly 2% on Wednesday as Japan’s nuclear crisis and protests in the Middle East heated up fears over the safety in equity investments. Oil added to its gains Thursday, rising 2% to $99.99 a barrel.

After seeing oil prices skyrocket from days of turmoil in Libya, investors now must grapple with political protests in the world's top oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, and the impact of Japan's biggest earthquake on record.

Upbeat economic data, and slipping oil prices, sparked a broad rally Thursday, lifting the blue chips to their biggest percent gain since December. 

Stocks fell sharply and oil prices spiked to their highest level in two years on Tuesday as investors worried about the increasingly violent unrest in Libya.