Energy Market Updates

Last night API's set the early tone for todays rice action as preliminary numbers showed large draws in distillates.  Those numbers were confirmed this morning with the EIA releasing a staggering 4.8mbl draw in distillates vs expectations of a mere 700k.  Gasoline was down slightly at 345k and Crude showed a slight build at 375k bls.  On the surface it appears distillate demand is on the rise, not only in the US, but also from an export position.  Soon after the data released, pits jumped almost .04, and stayed in that range for most of the afternoon.  Supporting the bullish price action was FED meeting minutes which appear to confirm last weeks chatter that we will start to see some significant unwinding of the Bond buying program in the months to come, as well as a positive retail report for October.  The hope is that a positive October doesn't turn into a lackluster November and December which is often the case in the retail world.  News hit mid afternoon of US-Iranian talks ended almost as quickly as it started, one report said the talks lasted less than 10 minutes with few words spoken.  Even with the draw in distillates, the market appears to be well supplied as Crude actual lost .01 to close out at $93.33, RBOB added .0235 to $2.6630 and HO led the gainers settling up .0487 to $2.9545.  Again, well within its comfort zone.

Overnight action saw pits slightly higher as the market weighed the continued threat of Nigerian oil workers to join the General Strike that has paralyzed the Nation for the last several days.  Prior to the release of inventories, which many were still digesting the much less bearish EIA numbers from Tuesday night, the housing market got a boost with a report showing applications for homes were up 4.5% this period.  A bullish indicator for the economy in general. This kept the market trading on both sides of 0.00 much of the morning.  With the large builds across the board on the DOE report, the initial sell off fizzled away as the day wore on.  Again, only to late session heroics, as in the last 15 minutes pushed HO down .0368 to 3.0646, RBOB slipped .0095 to 2.7633 and Crude fell 1.37 to $100.87.  Adding to my notes yesterday, many commented on the disbelief of how range bound the Heat pit has been this year.  Below is an eight month snap shot and shows the caterpillar like chart.  A solidly defined range of 2.70 to 3.15.  Currently sitting at 3.06, lets hope that this pattern continues.