Business: Oil to Market

Oil exchanges were exciting markets during the last quarter of the 19th Century. The Oil City, Pa. Exchange boasted a hectic day in 1884 when 29,006,000 bbl. of crude were sold. But trading was precarious when crude prices, notoriously unstable, often jumped from $2.75 a bbl. one year to $20 the next. When the Oil City Exchange, last of the big markets, closed in 1892, oil became the third of U. S. industry’s most basic commodities not traded on any exchange.*

Last week oil returned to market when the New York Commodity Exchange inaugurated trading in crude oil and gasoline futures, giving oil traders a chance to protect themselves against price changes by hedging. Selected as the basic oil for exchange contracts was mid-continent crude of 36 gravity which has been quoted at $1 per bbl. since September 1933. Sales for the first day were 14,000 bbl. at from $1.18 for July delivery to $1.25 for June delivery. Gasoline sold at from 5.78¢ to 5.98¢ per gal. Trading in oil and gasoline brought the number of commodities bought & sold on U. S. Exchanges to 33. The others: wheat, corn, rye. oats, sugar, coffee, cotton, silk, rubber, hides, butter, eggs, copper, zinc, tin, lead, rice, barley, lard, ribs, provisions, potatoes, cotton seed, flour, hay, flaxseed, millseeds, cocoa, wool, tops, grain sorghums, sugar bags.

*-The other two: iron and coal.