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Market Close: Jan 15 Down

Fueling Strategy: Please keep tanks topped today/tonight, Saturday prices will go UP 2 cents but will drop 3 cents Sunday- Be Safe
NYMEX Crude    $ 52.36 DN $1.2100
NYMEX ULSD     $1.5929 DN $0.0265
NYMEX Gas       $1.5195 DN $0.0343
NEWS
Oil prices fell more than 2% on Friday as concerns about Chinese cities in lockdown due to coronavirus outbreaks tempered a rally driven by strong import data from the world’s biggest crude importer and U.S. plans for a large stimulus package.

Brent Crude fell $1.32, or 2.34%, to settle at $55.10 per barrel, after gaining 0.6% on Thursday. WTI Crude settled $1.21, or 2.26%, lower at $52.36 per barrel, having risen more than 1% the previous session. Both benchmarks, which hit their highest in nearly a year earlier in the week, were are heading for their first weekly declines in three weeks.

While producers are facing unparalleled challenges balancing supply and demand equations with calculus involving vaccine rollouts versus lockdowns, financial contracts have been boosted by strong equities and a weaker dollar, which makes oil cheaper, along with strong Chinese demand. These positives were called into question on Friday as the dollar rose and China ramped up lockdown measures. A nearly $2 trillion COVID-19 relief package in the United States unveiled by President-elect Joe Biden may increase oil demand from the world’s biggest crude consumer. Still, some analysts said the move may not be enough to stoke demand. “In terms of being able to talk about demand, Asia was the only brightspot,” said John Kilduff, Partner at Again Capital Management in New York. “This renewed lock down is striking at the heart of the demand picture in Asia. It’s trouble.”

Crude imports into China were up 7.3% in 2020, with record arrivals in two out of four quarters as refineries increased runs and low prices prompted stockpiling, customs data showed on Thursday. But China reported the highest number of daily COVID-19 cases in more than 10 months on Friday, capping a week that has resulted in more than 28 million people under lock down as it suffered its first coronavirus death on the mainland since May.

“The COVID-19 pandemic’s spread is taking centre stage again and traders are getting increasingly worried about the long duration of European lockdown and about the new restrictions (in) China,” Bjornar Tonnage from Rystad Energy said. “The market is structurally bullish, but it may be getting too ahead of forward-looking fundamentals.”

Have a Great Day,
Loren R Bailey, President
Fuel Manager Services Inc.
“Serving the trucking industry since 1992”
Office: 479-846-2761
Cell: 479-790-5581
www.FuelManagerServices.com
www.owneroperatoradvisoryservice.com
“To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity.”
Categories: Fuel News
loren: Fuel Manager Services Inc. "Serving the trucking industry since 1992" I've been in and around the trucking industry for 45-years beginning in owner operator operations at Willis Shaw Express. I bought a small trucking company that I ran for 6-years then sold and went to work for J.B. Hunt Transport in 1982. After 10-years with Hunt, I started Fuel Manager Services, Inc., we are in our 29th year of serving the American trucking companies. Our simple goal was and is to bridge the gap between the trucking companies and the fuel suppliers.