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Market Close: Oct 20 Mixed

Fueling Strategy: Do not fuel until after midnight, Wednesday AM wholesale prices will drop 5 cents – Be Safe!

NYMEX Crude $ 45.55 DN $.3400
NY Harbor ULSD $1.4487 DN $.0004
NYMEX Gasoline $1.2783 UP $.0269

NEWS
Oil futures finished on a mixed note Tuesday as the November West Texas Intermediate crude contracts went off the board ahead of weekly data that may show another increase in U.S. supplies. The expiration of the November WTI contracts increased volatility, sending prices for that contract lower, while December contracts ended nearly flat and Brent prices climbed. November West Texas Intermediate crude fell 34 cents, or 0.7%, to settle at $45.55 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

December crude which became the front-month contract at the settlement, ended a penny higher at $46.29 a barrel. December Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange tacked on 10 cents, or 0.2%, to $48.71 a barrel. Prices saw a “minor technical correction to Monday’s drop, with book squaring” ahead of the November WTI contract expiration and uncertainty over the U.S. inventory data for the week ended Oct. 16, said Tim Evans, energy analyst at Citi Futures.

The American Petroleum Institute will release its weekly data on inventories late Tuesday, while the U.S. Energy Information Administration has its own set of figures due early Wednesday. Citi Futures expects the report to show an increase of 3 million to 4 million barrels in crude-oils supplies for the week ended Oct. 16. Gasoline and distillate supplies are expected to fall by 1 million to 2 million barrels each. “With prices already being at these depressed levels, I would image that there will need to be some significantly bearish reason for speculators to sell crude with meaningful volume,” Fawad Razaqzada, technical analyst at Forex.com, told Market Watch.

On Wednesday, the “technical meeting” of OPEC and non-OPEC producers is “unlikely to cause much volatility, unless of course something unexpected is announced,” said Razaqzada. Iran’s oil minister said Monday he expects the country to boost production by 500,000 barrels a day in the coming months, and that it has committed buyers.

Meanwhile, futures prices for gasoline on Nymex settled higher after falling to their lowest level since 2009 Monday, based on the front-month contracts. Demand for gasoline has seen a seasonal slowdown and some refineries are back online following scheduled maintenance, analysts have said. November gasoline added 2.7 cents, or 2.2%, to $1.278 a gallon after a 5.8% drop a day earlier. “Energy futures are typically bipolar, but no energy futures’ contract is as bipolar as the gasoline (RBOB) contract,” said Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at the Oil Price Information Service. “Think of the gasoline market as a commodity Ferris wheel. November through January represent the bottom of that arc.”