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NYMEX Crude $ 30.34 DN $1.8500
NY Harbor ULSD $ .9353 DN $0.0604
NYMEX Gasoline $1.0300 DN $0.0538

NEWS
Oil futures settled with a nearly 6% loss on Monday, pulling back after a big rally Friday.

Expectations for a blizzard-related slowdown after much of the U.S.’s East Coast was slammed by snow helped pull prices for gasoline sharply lower.

March West Texas Intermediate crude lost $1.85, or 5.8%, to settle at $30.34 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices had settled at a two-week high of $32.19 on Friday. March Brent crude the global oil benchmark, retreated to $30.50 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures exchange, down $1.68, or 5.2%, following Friday’s 10% climb. A big bounce in oil prices, like the one seen on Friday when WTI prices jumped by 9%, “invites corrections,” said Colin Cieszynski, chief market strategist at CMC Markets. “The good news is that the…bounce off $30 is very encouraging as it confirms last week’s trading as part of a significant turn,” he said. For this week, Cieszynski said he expects oil to “remain volatile with big swings up and down as the bulls and bears battle for dominance, but for the overall trend to be sideways in the $28-32 or $30-34 ranges.” “Oil to me looks like it needs to spend some time digesting the big moves of the last few weeks to let traders recalibrate portfolios and regain their bearings,” he said.

Prices for petroleum products also saw hefty losses Monday on Nymex. February gasoline fell 5.4 cents, or 5%, to $1.03 a gallon and February heating oil finished at 93.53 cents a gallon, down 6 cents, or 6.1%. February natural gas meanwhile, tacked on 1.9 cents, or 0.9%, to end at $2.158 per million British thermal units.

Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group, attributed the fall in oil prices Monday to “concerns that the monster snowstorm out east will zap demand” for fuel, including gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. “While most New Yorkers are trying to find their car, it is clear that demand will be impacted negatively,” he said.

Last week, WTI oil prices dropped below $27 a barrel, but then bounced above $32 after the European Central Bank hinted that more monetary easing may be rolled out as early as March. Some traders also speculated that Japan’s central bank might increase its asset-purchase program at its January meeting. Prices saw additional support after industry group Baker Hughes BHI reported the number of U.S. active oil rigs dropped by five to 510 last week.

Barclays analyst Kevin Norrish said in note Monday that with a “marked slowdown in the rate of stockbuild” since this time last year, “alongside a substantial increase in the market’s ability to store crude oil, means that the crisis has eased.” “Oil may still be floundering, but it is now in much shallower water and dry land is almost in sight,” said Norrish.

This week, traders will also be taking cues from the U.S. Federal Reserve meeting on Jan. 26-27. Investors largely expects the U.S. government to keep short-term interest rates steady. Any hints of policy changes will have an effect on the dollar, which often impacts dollar-denominated oil prices.