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Market Close: Sep 28 Down

Fueling Strategy: Please keep tanks topped tonight, Wholesale prices are down one penny today – Please Be Safe!
NYMEX Crude        $  51.56 DN $.5800
NY Harbor ULSD    $1.8320 DN $.0143
NYMEX Gasoline   $1.6318 DN $.0222

NEWS

Oil turned lower Thursday, pulling back after a climb in the previous session, but prices kept a tight hold on gains so far this month as traders readied for the last trading session of the quarter.

So-called profit-taking as well as technical trading were to blame for oil’s retreat, Tyler Richey, co-editor of the Sevens Report, told MarketWatch. “The September rally was getting overextended to the upside,” but for now, the near-term uptrend remains intact.” Also, “the calendar is helping amplify today’s declines as money managers and traders are booking profits and closing positions ahead of both the month and quarter’s end” Friday, he said.

The U.S. benchmark, West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery fell by 58 cents, or 1.1%, to settle at $51.56 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices are still up around 2% for the week, poised for a monthly rise of 7.6% Global benchmark November Brent crude shed 49 cents, or 0.9%, to $57.41 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe, ahead of the contract’s expiration at Friday’s finish.

Oil settled higher Wednesday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported an unexpected 1.8 million barrel decline in crude inventories in the week ended Sept. 22, with the draw attributed in part to a surge in exports. “Hurricane Harvey disrupted refining operations in the Gulf Coast, which resulted in notable oil supply builds” because of lower refinery input demand, and sizable gasoline draws due to lower refinery runs, said Richey, in his daily newsletter. However, “operations seem to have stabilized based on this most recent EIA report.”

Analysts have noted that U.S. crude is seen as more attractive to foreign buyers after WTI moved to a wide discount to Brent crude in recent weeks. The discount briefly reached $7 a barrel earlier this week and remains near $6 a barrel. On the other hand, this “also gives U.S. oil producers an incentive to expand their production,” noted analysts at Commerzbank, in a note. Richey said oil’s “fundamental backdrop is shifting more in favor of the bulls for the time being.”

U.S. production has “finally cooled off,” expectations for demand growth have climbed and major oil producers taking part in the OPEC-led output agreement appear to be working toward further efforts to support oil prices, he said. “If WTI can break through key 2017 resistance at $54 [a barrel], futures should move swiftly towards the $60 mark.”

 

Have a great day,

Loren R. Bailey, President
Fuel Manager Services Inc

Office: 479-846-2761
Cell: 479-790-5581

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.