Energy Market Updates

After hitting yearly lows last week, Diesel pricing has risen over $.15 in the last week.  As expected, bargain hunters typically buy in regardless of fundamentals.  The increases have been muted somewhat as there is still that languishing fear that demand will fall off the proverbial shelf in the last two quarters. However, this weeks report showed that gasoline and diesel demand in the US remains somewhat strong, posting gains over last week and last year.  While both products showed draws in inventories this week, and Crude showed a solid increase, that appears to more of a factor of less refinery production than anything else.  Inventories for all appear stable with the exception of the SPR which is expected to begin repurchasing soon. 

While recent Inflation numbers dipped below 5%, down for the 10^th straight month, it is still much higher than the FED sweet spot of 2%.  My sense is the street is correct and we will not see another rate hike in the coming months. 

Gas will start to take the lead as the summer driving season kicks off and it will be interesting to see how Americans will act ahead of relatively unstable future.  Moreover, how will the commercial sector be affected?  Speaking with a number of Customers in various fields, most are “cautiously optimistic” about the upcoming months.  Work is steady, pricing is palatable, but labor remains tough.   DKB can assist with mitigating some of the uncertainty, please do not hesitate to reach out to discuss.  Expect sideways price movements for the next week with a wide rage of $.20 on both products.

Typically Inventory levels and price direction have an inverse relationship.  When Inventories rise, prices fall…. When Inventories fall, prices rise.  As one said, “this ain’t no typical market”.   

We said several weeks ago that market direction would weigh heavy on OPEC and FED policy and we see that now as fundamental factors are temporarily moved aside.  With Distillate inventories falling by 1.2m barrels and gasoline rising by 1.8m barrels, most are focused on what is said to be the final rate increase of .25% by the FED.  This is the tenth increase in just over a year.  Demand for finished products is starting to wane year over year, signaling to some that a real slowdown is imminent and FED policy is, for lack of a better term, working . 

Diesel pricing has fallen about $.40 in the last two weeks, and for most of us it is a well needed reprieve.  However, this is the fifth “bottom” we have seen in a year, (see chart) does this mean we will see a buyback in the next several days?  With true Russian export numbers showing robust shipments, highest since 2019, I would suggest that the global market is well supplied and demand forecasts are the true driver in the marketplace. 

Look to see pricing stabilize over the next few weeks (again with large day to day movements) as you will start to hear more and more on the labor market and unemployment figures, which is the collateral damage of rising rates.  While the supply picture is much improved in the region, it is still crucial to be in communication with your supplier as many are employing a “just in time” resupply approach.  It will also be interesting to see how the pending credit crunch will affect our industry.  Having a reliable, well supplied fuel provider, like DKB, will be key in the last two quarters of the year.

Oil markets moved higher this week primarily on the “surprise” production cut announced Sunday evening.  Recall two weeks ago we cautioned   “ All eyes will be on the FED and what they announce in the next meeting, more rate hikes or not?  Also look to see if OPEC+ decides to cut production to bolster prices in the coming weeks.”    

It wasn’t the shock of a million barrel cut, more of the agreement that Russia would extend their already in place cut of 500k bbls for another six months, thus totaling the Cartels cut to 1 million.  Fear not, it has been a very long time since OPEC has actually adhered to output quotes.  Most of the time the money is too good to pass up for many Nations. 

The fear with the cut is that Inflationary risk will rise as overall cost become higher.  As US manufacturing activity fell for the fifth straight month, coupled with yesterdays Inventory report showing Refining production slowing, it might signal that Inflation will continue to rise as demand remains high.  I tend to think about it differently (hold your comments) - If the cuts raise fuel prices, and people have to spend more on gas, heat, power, etc….  wouldn’t that force them to have less to spend on discretionary items therefore pushing down demand and subsequently lowering inflation?  We will leave that to people much smarter than me.  (Again, hold your comments). 

The draws across the board with inventories yesterday didn’t help any as futures again rose and we sit about $.10 higher than we did Monday morning.  As cooler heads prevail and the mentality shifts back towards the overall healthy of the economy in the months ahead, expect sideways daily pricing moves with a wide range from high to low.

Futures markets appear to be content with being rangebound as the last month has seen us bounce back and forth by about $.25 in Diesel.  The last four days has seen diesel futures fall almost $.15 in value. 

While the Distillate inventory report this week showed a slight gain of 200k barrels, the real news was in demand.  Distillate demand dipped about 8% from last week, which is down almost 23% from this time last year.  Demand and FED interest rate adjustments appear to be top of mind for most.  With the FED Chairman stating that recent economic data was stronger than expected, he alluded to the fact that more rate hikes will be necessary to calm inflation.  Traders took this as a sign that it will limit growth and subsequently, demand, thus the sell off. 

Still, outward diesel months are hovering around that $2.65 level we talk about, but even more interesting is that Backwardation (outer months being cheaper) has been all but erased for the second and third quarters. (see strip below)  As we transition back to summer diesel, the hope for most of us is a less volatile market.  Unfortunately, we have seen too many times a spike follow what appears to be a calm period for any number of fundamental or technical reasons.  Having a supplier versus a marketer is, and always has been, the best course of action in dealing with volatility.

Oil & Refined products all plunged today on a series of events. Both Brent & WTI were down over 3% this morning, and by 2pm refined products were down over 11 cents.

At the close, ULSD was down .1178 to $1.8529, RBOB shed .1129 to close at $1.7499, and WTI Crude was $53.95, down from $58.58 at the close yesterday.

Yikes.

So here's what appears to be going on in a very basic nutshell:

The Federal Reserve announced a single rate cut of 0.25% versus the series of cuts expected to be coming down the road. The interest rate cut was expected to begin a series of cuts to shore up the domestic economy against global economic concerns about general weakness but evidently will be a one shot deal. 

The dollar hit two year highs post Fed announcement, and oil crashed as a result. 

U.S. supplies were down for July and OPEC production hit record lows (below 2011 levels) as a result of the OPEC+ deal, which normally would serve to boost prices, or at least hold them steady. However, global supply & output levels are still very high, particularly from the United States, and additional influxes from former member nations who opted out of the OPEC+ production cut agreements. (When combined, that's an offset of around 12mmb per day against the cuts by OPEC countries) 

Finally, this afternoon, the Trump Administration announced abruptly that effective September 1, the US would impose a 10% tariff on an additional $300 billion dollars of Chinese goods. Not exactly helpful for allaying concerns about global trade, the global economy, or weakening demand, to put it mildly.

The announcement came out later in the day, so we will have to see how the markets shake out tomorrow - whether the demand concern seeming to dominate now holds out, or if we flip the markets the other way on overall economic concerns tariffs can raise. 

As always, stay tuned & feel free to reach out if you have questions. 

The last day of trading in 2014 saw Crude close out at $53.27/bbl, which was down 45% from the prior year. 2015 continued the trend with WTI dropping another 30% over the year - with December 31, 2015 settling out at $37.04.

This week we crashed down through the $35-36 dollar support levels and are rapidly approaching the next one of $32.50/bbl after todays tumble resulted in Crude closing out at $33.97/bbl.

Let's take a step back and look at what went on this week to push oil prices down 8% since December 31st.

Monday, January 4th, markets initially shot up with ULSD and RBOB both jumping over a nickel by 10am (+.0516 and +.0576, respectively), before almost immediately changing course - both products were down by noon to flat on ULSD and only up .0156 on gas. So what happened?

Monday brought the news that the Saudi's had cut all diplomatic ties with Iran and ordered all Iranian diplomats to leave the country within 24 hours. This was in response to the Kingdom executing 47 people over the New Years weekend, including and most importantly, a renowned Shiite cleric, which prompted riots and vandalism to the Saudi embassies in Iran and Bahrain. 

As the day went on however, the analysis of the story moved from fear of international conflict bumping up cost over supply disruptions, to the realization that the standoff between Iran and Saudi Arabia meant that this could essentially be the death knell for OPEC. As far as the bears see it, this breakdown of relations essentially guarantees the Saudis will not take any moves to cut production in order to stabilize pricing, because to do so would greatly help Iran, in that the newly allowed exports they promise to flood the markets with would generate them much more revenue. 

Economic data from China Monday supports the bears as well. It was a factor in pushing down oil prices, as well as being responsible for crushing European markets and resulting in the single worst year opening for the Dow Jones since 1932. Overnight, Chinese stocks crashed over 7% and led to a halt in trading across the board - a halt that didnt come soon enough not to pummel stocks internationally. One can only hope the old Wall Street adage "As goes January, so goes the year" is wrong this time. 

There was some bouncing around Tuesday, particularly on the overnights as investors and analysts weighed the API projections that predicted draws in Crude stocks to be announced Wednesday. However, today's EIA report showed just the opposite, and swiftly tanked the market across the board. At the close, ULSD lost -.0446 to settle at 1.0807, RBOB shed almost ten cents (-.0949) to close at 1.1618 (very close to the $1.10 support level) and Crude settled down $2 at $33.97.

What next? Bears are predicting oil hits and potentially breaks through the $32.50 support level for a brief stint in the upper 20's ($28 range), while the Bulls are predicting a jump back to the $37 level. We shall see. 

Stay Tuned!

This past week has been a wild one.

Wednesday we saw WTI shed almost $2/barrel (4.6%) to close out under $40 at $39.94/bbl and both ULSD and RBOB shed over 6 cents each (-0641 and -0699, respectively) on the EIA Inventory report, which once again showed unexpected builds.  Crude inventories built 1.2mmb, marking the 10th consecutive week of builds.  

An additional weight on oil and other commodities was the dollar, which surged to a 12 year high after the Fed indicated they were likely to move forward with a rate hike. (Friday's strong jobs report makes that even more likely).

Thursday the reverse situation happened, as investors and traders waited with baited breath on the hopes that OPEC would come to a consensus at Friday's meeting to lower output.

Today however, its official - OPEC did not come to any formal policy change and will not be cutting production or lowering the ceiling. Iran has been vocal and vehement for the past few weeks that they would absolutely refuse any cuts in production just when Western Sanctions are coming down and allowing them to reenter the market. They plan to come online at as much capacity as possible in Tehran, and the Saudi's essentially cited the "complication" of Iran's new ability to ramp up output as the reason today's meeting was fruitless. 

Predictably, oil was down on the announcement, as it effectively seals the deal in terms of all but guaranteeing the oil glut not just continues, but worsens. (Crude settled at $39.97, down from Thursday's $41.08)

The pressure now will be on higher cost producers like the US. However, that's been the case (and the OPEC strategy) to some degree for over a year now and hasn't solved the problem. The real losers in the lack-of-a-deal are the smaller OPEC and non-OPEC oil producing countries who lack the capital reserves of countries like Saudi Arabia - namely Brazil, Venezuela, etc. If oil continues to slide, we could start seeing serious economic impacts and unrest in oil-revenue dependent nations.

Stay Tuned!

The markets are up across the board today, from stocks to Crude oil. 

ULSD was up +.0284 to 1.5483, and RBOB shot up +.0439 to 1.3853, front month, at the close. WTI Crude was up almost 2% to close at 46.26/bbl. 

What happened?

Reportedly, Russia is open to talks with OPEC and other oil producing nations to discuss pricing and global supply. Although no actual meeting has been proposed, traders were still optimistic, and both WTI and Crude jumped up on the news. (Prices were also bolstered by a perceived weakening dollar – more on that in a moment.)

Additionally, apparently Russia and the Saudi’s have a meeting scheduled this month to discuss energy projects, and one can probably assume this will include how they will approach the OPEC meeting, if there ends up being one.

On Wall Street, disappointing job numbers from last week, coupled with a statement from the Boston Fed Chair that growth would have to be hitting 2% target rates to justify an interest rate increase resulted in a semi consensus that the odds the interest rate goes up in October is around 10%. As a result, stocks were up….but for how long?

While the Fed delay was good for Wall Street today, it’s not really a good sign bigger picture, both for Wall Street and the US in general. We saw one effect of that today, where the jump in commodity pricing can be somewhat pegged on the dollar starting to weaken on soft economic data and the implication that the US economy is not strengthening on its anticipated trajectory, as implied by the Fed delays.

Something of note internationally, that could have broad impacts on the markets, is that tensions between the US and Russia are approaching Cold War levels as Russia continues air strikes in Syria. The strikes, ostensibly part of a multifaceted attack on ISIS in Syria have apparently actually been hitting anti-Assad rebels, who are at least nominally supported by the US. To add another splash of gasoline to the fire, this weekend a Doctors without Borders hospital was bombed in Afghanistan, and it appears a US aircraft may have been involved, which could obviously have devastating international consequences, both geopolitically and otherwise.

Stay tuned!

WTI dropped 2.8% today to close out at $44.43 a barrel, while Brent closed out down 2.5% . On the refined products side of the NYMEX, ULSD and Gas both took a pummeling as well, with both down over 4 on the day. To be exact, ULSD closed out down (-.0453) to 1.4772 and RBOB closed down (-.0471) to 1.3488.

So whats going on?

For one, the news from China today was that industrial companies there have seen profits plummet at a faster level than they have in four years, resparking speculation that China's economy is really struggling a lot more than everyone has been assuming. As previously discussed, Chinese economic data is such a huge indicator because they are a top commodities consumer, and strong economic data from China is basically what traders and analysts are "hanging their hat on" as a potential for growing demand to stave off the price crushing effects of the oil glut.

The IMF Managing Director also announced today that although the economy was still recovering from the recession, the pace had decelerated, and the 3.3-3.8 GDP goals for 2015 & 2016 were now "unrealistic". This in combo with the bleak Chinese data pushed crude down quickly both overseas and domestically. 

In related news, Shell announced today that they will be pulling out of Arctic drilling exploration in Alaska. This is primarily a result of the sustained drop in oil prices, and follows a growing trend industry-wide. Over half of American rigs have been decomissioned, and investment into new oil sands projects and new gulf drilling projects has dropped substantially.

Simply put, theres just too much oil out there now to invest huge sums of money into procuring even more of it.  

Wall Street took a beating today as well on Chinese data, the IMF remarks, and continued rumor milling over the timing of the Fed Rate hike. The president of the NY Fed suggested it could happen as soon as October, where others have speculated December was the likely target date. So once again, Fed talks and the resultant speculation, combined with some more "surprise" bleak economic data hammered stocks today - which is starting to seem like a standing headline at this point. 

Stay Tuned!

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.)

Overnight trading was mixed on some fears about supply disruptions due to Tropical Storm Bill, as well as a stronger dollar. 

The Fed concludes its two day Open Market Meeting today as well, and Fed Chairman Janet Yellen is slated to have a press conference at 2:30 this afternoon to discuss the meeting and give an indication on where the Fed stands on raising interest rates. Its unlikely they will raise them now, given some weaker economic data out over the past few weeks, but expect to see the stock market jump around, regardless. 

Stay tuned for how the market reacts once the EIA eport is officially released.