Oil Prices

Looks like the death of Osama Bin Laden this Sunday took some "fear factor" out of markets, which greeted the news favorably. Pressure at the pump could be relieved a bit with oil falling 0.7% to $113.23. The US dollar rose against the euro and the yen on reports that President Barack Obama will shortly announce the death of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The senior currency strategist at RBC Capital Markets Sue Trinh said that “The initial knee-jerk reaction has been to buy the U.S. dollar as confidence in the U.S. has been boosted by the news”. The dollar rose against the euro, which fetched 1.4764 dollars from 1.4864 in earlier trade. The dollar was at 81.66 yen from 81.19 earlier. Futures on the S&P 500 Index were trading up 0.8% at 1370 at 4:37 EST.

Crude for June delivery slipped 1.2% to $112.59 on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 4 p.m. Singapore time. Investors unwound short dollar positions on falls in crude oil prices on the news that Osama is dead, Tomohiro Nishida, senior dealer at Chuo Mitsui Trust and Banking, told Dow Jones Newswires.

Celebrations also broke out in front of the White House in Washington, DC and in Times Square, New York after hearing the news that terrorist Osama Bin laden had been killed. Terrorists, let this be a lesson to you … eventually we will find you, we will get you and we will kill you.

Analysts at Houston-based energy research firm Tudor Pickering Holt said the “first reaction by the market is relief” that the man who directed the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks that killed thousands, mostly at the site of the former World Trade Center, was dead