It’s Another Day Of Crude Oil Moving Higher
It’s another day of crude oil moving higher, while refined products are trading modestly lower to start. We’ve seen a drop of $12/barrel for diesel cracks already this week as WTI has rallied while products retreat, but so far the entire complex is holding on to a bullish technical outlook.
Even though cracks have come under heavy pressure after reaching record highs north of $75/barrel earlier in June, ULSD futures passed their first big technical test Tuesday, bouncing 15 cents off of Tuesday’s low, and keeping the weekly bullish trend-line intact for now.
Ethanol prices meanwhile have dropped to 2 month lows this week and their charts show a good chance those prices will slide another 40-50 cents in the coming weeks if buyers don’t step in soon. Some good news for ethanol bulls yesterday in that corn and D6 RIN prices were able to manage a rally after facing heavy selling the past two weeks.
2 for 1: The DOE finally fixed the glitch with their servers and will be releasing their weekly status report today, which will include the data from last week that was not released. The API reported another healthy draw in crude oil stocks of 3.8 million barrels last week, despite another 7 million barrels released from the SPR on the week. Refined products saw inventory builds of 2.8 million barrels of gasoline and 2.6 million barrels of diesel last week, which helps explain why products are down and crude prices are up for another day.
The tropics remain active with an increased chance the storms off the Texas Coast may become a tropical depression or storm, but odds remain low that that system will become anything more than a rainmaker. Hurricane Bonnie is still expected to develop later in the week but will hit Central America and not threaten the oil production or refining centers in the Gulf of Mexico.
That should fix the problem: California is floating a new law that would require the few remaining refineries in the state to disclose their profits monthly, another brilliant idea from the state that will soon cut $1,000 checks to drivers of gasoline-powered vehicles that it intends to outlaw.
Click here to download a PDF of today's TACenergy Market Talk.
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View AllGasoline Futures Are Leading The Energy Complex Higher This Morning With 1.5% Gains So Far In Pre-Market Trading
Gasoline futures are leading the energy complex higher this morning with 1.5% gains so far in pre-market trading. Heating oil futures are following close behind, exchanging hands 4.5 cents higher than Friday’s settlement (↑1.3%) while American and European crude oil futures trade modestly higher in sympathy.
The world’s largest oil cartel is scheduled to meet this Wednesday but is unlikely they will alter their supply cuts regimen. The months-long rally in oil prices, however, has some thinking Saudi Arabia might being to ease their incremental, voluntary supply cuts.
Tropical storm Rina has dissolved over the weekend, leaving the relatively tenured Philippe the sole point of focus in the Atlantic storm basin. While he is expected to strengthen into a hurricane by the end of this week, most projections keep Philippe out to sea, with a non-zero percent chance he makes landfall in Nova Scotia or Maine.
Unsurprisingly the CFTC reported a 6.8% increase in money manager net positions in WTI futures last week as speculative bettors piled on their bullish bets. While $100 oil is being shoutedfromeveryrooftop, we’ve yet to see that conviction on the charts: open interest on WTI futures is far below that of the last ~7 years.
Click here to download a PDF of today's TACenergy Market Talk.
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.