Oil Prices Mixed After OPEC Decision

NEW YORK: World oil prices were mixed Monday after OPEC decided to leave output steady in the face of a deepening global economic crisis.
New York's main futures contract, light sweet crude for April, leapt 1.10 dollars to close at 47.35 dollars a barrel.

The benchmark contract opened more than a dollar lower but firmed throughout the session as the market picked up a whiff of cautious optimism from equities markets.

"Prices not surprisingly went down in response to the OPEC announcement that OPEC was going to leave the quotas unchanged," said Andy Lipow at Lipow Oil Associates.
"But as the day progressed, the stock market continued its rally," he added. US stocks faded late in the day after a four-day rally.

In London, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in April shed 95 cents from Friday's close to settle at 43.98 dollars a barrel.

Finance ministers from the Group of 20 emerging and developed nations vowed coordinated and sustained efforts to help stem a massive financial crisis after a London meeting Saturday.
Oil prices earlier had fallen after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries decided at a meeting Sunday in Vienna to leave members' production quotas unchanged.

Some analysts had speculated that they would once again cut output to shore up prices that have tumbled from record peaks above 147 dollars a barrel last July.