LURCHING — The daily OPEC price (above) has been stumbling around in the $102 to $107 range for three weeks now. For a few months it has tended to make large lurches of a few dollars in a single day, only to lurch in the opposite direction a short while later. Except for the surge of the first quarter (seen in the monthly average chart below) and the equal and opposite plunge of the second quarter, the monthly average has been fairly steady in the $105 to $110 range for a year and a half now.
