Energy Market Updates

#TBT - It's hard to believe it but just about exactly a year ago, we were still looking at Crude oil that was dancing around the old $100 "new normal" benchmark.

Friday saw oil futures tumble again to multi-month lows, with Brent settling at 48.61, and WTI at 43.87 for September. (ULSD closed out at 1.5436, and RBOB at 1.6230 ) on general concerns about the oil glut and dissapointing economic data from China. 

This morning Brent Crude dropped under $50 for the first time in 6 months, and WTI fell below $45/bbl to within $2 of a 6 year low. Shortly after noon, the NYMEX showed ULSD down .0452 cents, and gas down almost 9 (-.0882).

Stock Markets across the Globe dropped sharply on worries over Greece's potential (and frankly, very likely) default. Greece owes the IMF  a 1.8 billion dollar payment tommorow, but their Prime Minister has pushed voting on whether to accept referendums to July 5th, making it pretty clear Greece is unwilling and unable to make their required payments. 

Oil was rising this morning ahead of the EIA inventory report's release. Analysts are expecting to see draws in both Crude and Gasoline. Crude is projected to drop between 1.7 and 1.8mmb. Supplies are still at historically high levels, but the drawbacks are a bearish signal for the market. Just prior to the reports release (10:30am) ULSD and RBOB have both jumped up over 5 cents (.0554 and .0526, respectively.)

The EIA released its Short Term Energy Outlook today with its projections for both Crude prices and US Crude Oil production through 2016. It also projects where we will be on retail gasoline, natural gas storage, and electricity for 2015 & 2016.

The NYMEX shot up again today, after trending slightly downward the past several sessions. Last week saw Brent over $65/bbl and today WTI settled out +1.50 to 60.75, over the $60/bbl benchmark we've all been watching for.