Oil prices fell nearly 1 per cent to below $93 a barrel today as investors took profits from a rally driven by a Mexican supply outage and the spiralling dollar.
US crude fell by 71 cents to $92.82 a barrel earlier today after hitting a record high of $93.80 in the previous session. London Brent lost 59 cents to $89.73, down nearly $1 from its record high.
State oil company Pemex has shut a fifth of Mexico's crude production and halted the bulk of exports, as storms kept ships bottled at ports across the country. It hopes to resume supplies when bad weather eases in a day or so.
The US dollar hovered near record lows versus the euro and major currencies on Tuesday, ahead of an expected interest rate cut when the US Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee meets on October 30-31st.
Lower interest rates in the wake of the US subprime debacle helped fuel an influx of investor capital into commodities, pushing oil toward its inflation-adjusted, all-time peak of $101.70 a barrel in April 1980.
