Mixed Market Week on Same Old Concerns

Happy Friday!

We are ending out a mixed week on the NYMEX today, to put it mildly. Monday & Tuesday were both substantial down days with the market shedding over 4 cents (.0433 and .0473, respectively) on ULSD both days, and landing Crude at $55.21 at Tuesday's close. 

Wednesday & Thursday however, saw the NYMEX jump up substantially.

Wednesday's inventory numbers fell short of expected builds and we saw intraday highs over 5 on refined products, with the close reflecting +.0347 on ULSD ($1.8921) and +.0526 on RBOB ($1.6563) and Crude closed at $57.11. 

Thursday gains were around 2% with ULSD closing up +.0526 to $1.9447, RBOB +.0481 to $1.7044 and Crude up to $58.58, a two month high. 

Today we saw the market shed some of the week's earlier gains, with ULSD down -.0153 to $1.9294, RBOB off -.0301 to $1.6743 and Crude closed out at $57.77, about back where it was Wednesday mid-morning. 

So what's going on? Good question. It seems a lot of the back-and-forth action this week (and for a few weeks prior) has primarily been the result of ongoing speculation and reaction on three repeating themes 1) China-US Trade War 2) OPEC Cut questions 3) Global economic concerns.

Essentially we have been bouncing up or down based on reaction to inventory reporting, economic reports, rumors of progress then retreat on ongoing China-US discussions, tariff delay questions, and uneasiness about what OPEC may or may not announce regarding cuts at their December 5th meeting. 

Hopefully there is some solid direction on any of these questions over the next few weeks, or it's anyone's guess when the see-saw action will subside. Until then, it's Deja Vu all over again, as they say. 

Stay tuned!