Commodities : Thursday, Dec. 18, 1986 : Oil Futures Prices Seesaw

Oil futures traders put in a frenzied day Thursday, executing a record number of contracts as prices bounced around in a market fed on rumor and speculation from the OPEC conference in Geneva. In some other markets livestock, meat and most grains and soybeans were lower.

The estimated volume of 101,552 crude oil contracts easily surpassed the previous record of 73,054 set Monday at the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In the end, the January contract for West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark grade of U.S. crude, gained 20 cents a barrel after being down as much as 61 cents.

“It was a seesaw market with prices going up and down depending on the latest word out of Geneva,” said Nauman Barakat, an analyst in New York with Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co. “All the selling or buying was just based on emotion and rumor.”

The oil market “opened under intense pressure as most people abandoned hope” that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries could agree to production cuts aimed at raising prices, said Peter Beutel, an analyst in New York with Elders Futures.