Energy And Equity Prices See Strong Gains In Early Trading
It’s a Risk On Wednesday as energy and equity prices are both seeing strong gains in early trading with optimism for life after Coronavirus taking some hold.
The API estimated that U.S. gasoline stocks dropped by 1.1 million barrels last week, while crude oil built by just under 10 million barrels and diesel stocks increased by 4.5 million barrels. The DOE’s weekly report is due out at its regular time.
The drop in gasoline stocks is the latest in a series of signs over the past week that domestic gasoline consumption is picking up. While demand remains far from where it usually is this time of year, it's a positive change that helps alleviate storage concerns for now. Gasoline cash markets are also reflecting this optimism with continued buying across several regions this week, pushing differentials up by 40 cents or more in some markets since bottoming out earlier in April.
May futures for RBOB and HO expire tomorrow, and are already seeing much lighter volumes than normal, so don’t be surprised to see some wild swings as those contracts go off the board. The super-contango across energy contracts means that June RBOB should open up near the $0.77 range that held resistance for several days earlier this month. This should provide a good near-term test of the staying power of this recent rally.
The FOMC is wrapping up a two day policy meeting today, and will be making an announcement this afternoon. With the FED already pulling out all the stops, including buying up more than $2.5 trillion worth of various assets and slashing interest rates to essentially zero, no one seems to be betting on an interest rate change from this meeting. In fact, according to the CME’s Fedwatch tool, traders aren’t expecting any change in interest rates for at least a year.
Click here to download a PDF of today's TACenergy Market Talk.
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The Energy Bulls Are On The Run This Morning, Lead By Heating And Crude Oil Futures
The energy bulls are on the run this morning, lead by heating and crude oil futures. The November HO contract is trading ~7.5 cents per gallon (2.3%) higher while WTI is bumped $1.24 per barrel (1.3%) so far in pre-market trading. Their gasoline counterpart is rallying in sympathy with .3% gains to start the day.
The October contracts for both RBOB and HO expire today, and while trading action looks to be pretty tame so far, it isn’t a rare occurrence to see some big price swings on expiring contracts as traders look to close their positions. It should be noted that the only physical market pricing still pricing their product off of October futures, while the rest of the nation already switched to the November contract over the last week or so.
We’ve now got two named storms in the Atlantic, Philippe and Rina, but both aren’t expected to develop into major storms. While most models show both storms staying out to sea, the European model for weather forecasting shows there is a possibility that Philippe gets close enough to the Northeast to bring rain to the area, but not much else.
The term “$100 oil” is starting to pop up in headlines more and more mostly because WTI settled above the $90 level back on Tuesday, but partially because it’s a nice round number that’s easy to yell in debates or hear about from your father-in-law on the golf course. While the prospect of sustained high energy prices could be harmful to the economy, its important to note that the current short supply environment is voluntary. The spigot could be turned back on at any point, which could topple oil prices in short order.
Click here to download a PDF of today's TACenergy Market Talk.
Gasoline And Crude Oil Futures Are All Trading Between .5% And .8% Lower To Start The Day
The energy complex is sagging this morning with the exception of the distillate benchmark as the prompt month trading higher by about a penny. Gasoline and crude oil futures are all trading between .5% and .8% lower to start the day, pulling back after WTI traded above $95 briefly in the overnight session.
There isn’t much in the way of news this morning with most still citing the expectation for tight global supply, inflation and interest rates, and production cuts by OPEC+.
As reported by the Department of Energy yesterday, refinery runs dropped in all PADDs, except for PADD 3, as we plug along into the fall turnaround season. Crude oil inventories drew down last week, despite lower runs and exports, and increased imports, likely due to the crude oil “adjustment” the EIA uses to reconcile any missing barrels from their calculated estimates.
Diesel remains tight in the US, particularly in PADD 5 (West Coast + Nevada, Arizona) but stockpiles are climbing back towards their 5-year seasonal range. It unsurprising to see a spike in ULSD imports to the region since both Los Angeles and San Francisco spot markets are trading at 50+ cent premiums to the NYMEX. We’ve yet to see such relief on the gasoline side of the barrel, and we likely won’t until the market switches to a higher RVP.