Oil surges to new record $100 next

clipped from blogs.usatoday.com Worries over supplies and conflict in the Mideast sent oil futures to another record close — $90.46 a barrel. "It was an explosive day. They've blown the top off this market," oil analyst Phil Flynn told MarketWatch. "Another bullish perfect storm. You had the Iranian sanctions that caused nervousness, doubts about OPEC's ability to increase production. You had another weak dollar today and strong commodities across the board." "It's not a question of when we'll hit $100 but how quickly,'' said Nauman Barakat, an executive at Macquarie Futures, interviewed by Bloomberg. "There are no bearish factors in the market right now.'' Today's Wall Street Journal quotes an OPEC official saying the cartel won't announce new output quotas — beyond an additional 500,000 barrels a day for November — at next month's meeting. That comes in the wake of an unexpected drop in U.S. stockpiles.