Energy Market Updates

Futures danced along the even mark most of the day with little news pushing the market for much of the session.  Greece is still trying to get a break on the 14.5 billion it owes creditors come mid March.  US Carriers have moved through the Straits of Hormuz with little in the way of disruptions.  A European refiner filed for bankruptcy, Petroplus, as margins disappeared.  Two of the most notable market moving stories were that the IMF revised down the world economic growth pointing to a slower than expected growth rate over the last five months.  Ahead of the close, the spendingpulse survey (a Mastercard service) pointed to higher gas demand last week.  How much credence is given to this survey has always been a debate, a weekend snow event in the northeast might have boosted sales on Friday.  Nonetheless, most will be looking at Wednesday's DOE report which is expected to show moderate builds across the board.  It looked like heat was on a pretty good downward slide until the last two sessions, which really doesn't make sense if you look at the 7 to 10 day outlook which has temperatures in the Northeast well above normal levels.  At the close Crude lost .63 to $98.95, RBOB rose .0271 to 2.8050 and HEAT added .0144 to $3.0242.

RBOB CLOSE

CLOSE       CHANGE     FEB    28050       +.0271 MAR   28105      +.0249 APR    29399      +.0161 MAY   29264      +.0118 JUN   28979      +.0091 JUL    28633      +.0081

HEAT CLOSE

CLOSE    CHANGE FEB     30242     +.0144 MAR    30151      +.0116 APR     29951      +.0073 MAY   29741      +.0051 JUN    29611     +.0022 JUL     29612      +.0000