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Today's EIA Inventory report for the week ending April 17th showed a build of 5.5mmb on Crude, but a drop of 2.1mmb on gasoline. Interestingly, even though analysts had projected a mere 2.6mmb build in Crude while the actuals were more than double that, Crude ticked upwards along side RBOB and ULSD initially before settling back down.
Today the NYMEX settled out much more reasonably than yesterday, with ULSD finishing off up .0192 to 1.908, and RBOB settled down 6 points to 1.9354.
Oil continued downward today on the back of the EIA inventory report for last week that indicated Crude stockpiles were up 9mmbl to a record high of about 407mmbbls. At the close, Crude dropped below $45/bbl, -1.78 to 44.45. ULSD and RBOB closed lower as well, ULSD settling down .0310 to 1.6318, and RBOB settled down .0051 to 1.345.
In addition to the inventory report, as we mentioned, the new Saudi leader has indicated the largest OPEC producer will continue on its track to hit production goals set. Both of these factors mean traders are still concerned with longterm over supply, which is continuing to drive down prices.
2015 is off to a wild start, with Crude dancing around and then dropping below $50/bbl. Wednesday (the 7th) Crude closed out at $48.65, yet another 5 year record. Gasoline and distillates have closed down every day this week, so it looks like the 2014 slide has no intention of stopping.
Oil prices kept sliding this week on positive signs, despite a draw in US Crude supplies.
The Dow & Nasdaq were up in pre-market trading on news of a Republican sweep last night, and stocks are continuing to rebound this morning after Tuesdays drop off. The exception to this rule being energy shares, which are pulling the S&P down on the back of plummeting Crude prices.
The ADP report on October job creation came in at 230K, 10K above the projected number. Strong payroll numbers for October and September, continually falling initial jobless claims and a surprisingly good Q3 growth number (3.5%) are all good signs for the overall economy.
Thursday saw prices tick up after it was reported that the Saudi's output dropped from 9.69 million barrels to 9.36 million barrels. There has been some chatter and concern around the scheduled OPEC meeting in November. The concern being that OPEC will push curbing supply to stop the price declines we've seen in recent months. Brent Crude was up 3% on the news, the highest its been in 4 months.
However, despite the OPEC chatter, the Saudi's have said they will keep output at scheduled high levels even with lower pricing to maintain market share. Additionally, reportedly only a small number of members have suggested supply curbing.