Crude oil prices continue their downward trend, trading off about $3 in today’s action. The dollar rising in forex markets is proving a strong impetus for the drop in oil prices, as well as weakening demand for gasoline, as the higher prices force consumers to buy less gas. The drop in oil prices is boosting stocks up rather nicely.

Mastercard, which has a keen insight into how much holders of its credit cards are spending at the gas station, puts out a weekly survey of gasoline spending and those numbers show that gasoline consumption has dropped for thirteen straight weeks.

Oil is off almost 2 1/2% on the day, and down 17% from the record price of $147.27 that was reached on May 6th. Amazingly, Royal Dutch Shell today announced that is it suspending shipments of its Nigerian Bonny Light Crude, which is highly desired by refiners for its low sulphur content, until September, because rebel attacks on their pipelines have cause substantial damage. This however, is not having a negative effect on oil prices, although the price of oil was up initially, when the news was announced.

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