The NYMEX was down across the board today, with Crude settling at $56.35 (from $57.23), ULSD dropping .0288 to settle at $1.9278, and Gas shedding .0484 to close out at $1.6262.
We've been up and down on the markets recently with the news doing a tug-of-war around trade tensions, global supply fundamentals, and demand/economic outlook concerns.
Today's drop, however, we can attribute to a pretty straightforward factor - huge builds in supply on this morning's EIA report.
This week's EIA data showed an increase of a whopping 7.9 mmb in Crude supplies, almost triple the number (2.7mmb) analysts had predicted. This is the second week in a row that analysts pegged a build of around 2.5/2.7mmb and the actuals dwarfed the estimates, which explains much of today's quick drop (no one had it "priced in").
Gasoline & Distillate inventories both showed draws, but came in relatively close to analyst predictions, with actuals showing 2.8mmb on gasoline (2.4mmb predicted) and 600,000bbl on distillates (versus 1mmb predicted). Gas & Diesel have had unseasonably high demand as of late so draw downs are actually a positive sign in that regard.
So supply is up more than anticipated, and there are still concerns regarding global demand & economic growth... but before deciding that means prices will stay depressed, its important to note that OPEC is again discussing further supply cuts across the board, despite the ever present concern regarding US Shale production.
Word on the street is that Saudi Arabia has been pressuring producers in their region to agree on further cuts in an effort to boost market valuation of the Aramco IPO. (High valuation on the IPO may make risking a resurgence in shale production in the US worth it, when it otherwise would not be).
It's unclear if and when the cuts could take effect, but its definitely something that could impact near term pricing and is worth keeping an eye on.
Stay tuned!
