Energy Market Updates

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NYMEX Plunges on Fed Rates, Supply, Tariff Tweets

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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. 

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Stocks & Oil Markets Take a Wild Ride Into 2016

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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!

 

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OPEC Holds Firm on Output Levels

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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!

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Russia, OPEC and a Weaker Dollar - Oh my!

Line charts depicting the stock market scattered on a table

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!

 

 

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Standing Headline: Fed Talks,Chinese Economic Data Pummel Stocks,Crude

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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!

 

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Fed Holds Interest Rates, Oil Drops after Wednesday's Gains

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Oil prices continued to tumble early this week - that is until the Wednesday EIA report came out and spiked prices on Crude up 6%. The report showed that Crude stockpiles fell by 2.1mmbbls for the week ending September 11. Additionally, Distillate stocks dropped by 3mmbbl, and gasoline dropped 2.84mmb. That explains Wednesday, when we saw Crude jump up to settle at $47.15 (Tuesday's close was $44), ULSD jumped .0414 to $1.5414, and RBOB jumped .0492 to $1.3821 (it could have been worse - intraday highs were over 5 up on diesel and 6 up on gas!).

Today is trending down like yesterday, with ULSD down .0390 to $1.4907, and gas down .0198 to $1.3562. WTI closed out at $44.68.

The Federal Reserve announced late Thursday that it will not be increasing interest rates at this time, based on concern about global economic growth. This has pushed oil prices down, because global concern means we're unlikely to see a spike in demand that would ease concerns about the oil glut we've been dealing with. As you'd expect, there's been some demand/use increase because of the lower prices we've been seeing, however its simply not robust enough to really make a sizeable dent in the oversupply. 

The issue with the Fed's statement outside of the grim outlook is they are still suggesting a rate hike this year, probably December. That means we will probably see the same up and down volatility with stocks and oil prices as we have seen over the past few months while waiting for this now-passed deadline. 

Rig counts are down in the US again, according to Baker Hughes' report, which may stem some production, but again, not likely to be a huge mover one way or the other. Refineries will be going on scheduled maintainence soon which may lower Crude stockpiles for a while, we'll have to wait and see on what impact that has. Across the globe, OPEC is still maintaining they will not be stemming production, and Iran has stated they intend to come fully back online as soon as sanctions no longer suppress their output. 

On the political side - the House Committee on Energy voted this week to move a bill proposing the repeal of the Crude Export Ban to the floor for a vote. Obama is likely to threaten veto, and its unclear if it will even get through the Senate to force said veto, but it is a potential bright spot for US producers and refiners that the bipartisan bill is moving to the floor.

(If you want to brush up on some of the issues regarding the Crude Oil Export Ban, you can do so in these articles: "Is it Time to Overturn the Crude Export Ban?" and "Energy Security, Not Independence, Should be the Goal" )

Stay tuned!

 

 

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NYMEX reacts to Projected Crude Draws

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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.

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NYMEX Slows Acceleration after Yesterday's Spikes

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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. 

Yesterday was another story however, with prices shooting up on the lower than anticipated stock levels in this weeks EIA storage report. Crude was up over 3% shortly after the report, a little before 11am. At the close, ULSD ticked up .0871 to 1.8888 and RBOB shot up a solid dime to 1.936. 

In addition to the EIA report, there's been more grumblings on production cut backs from OPEC, although as usual the Saudi's are holding firm. The Saudi position is starting to seriously impact US production - hence the lower than anticipated numbers on the EIA's report, and the resultant market freak out. 

As of last week the US Crude inventories were at their 80 year high, so the reaction seems somewhat extreme. However, the actual numbers were about 30% of the projected increase so that obviously caused some concern about how hard the impact from another huge OPEC production month really is. Also, once again these events coincide with rumblings from the Fed on economic policy, specifically the interest rate level as well as continued problems in Yemen.

Deja vu all over again. 

Stay Tuned!

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NYMEX Keeps Sliding on Dollar, Iraq, Margin Rates, and The Fed

Line charts depicting the stock market scattered on a table

Oil prices kept sliding this week on positive signs, despite a draw in US Crude supplies. 

Tuesday dropped on news of Iraqis striking an export deal with the Kurds that will resume the flow of oil from Kirkuk that had essentially been stalled out previously. Brent responded to the news by almost completely reversing its 3% gain on Monday and settling down $2 to $70.54. WTI, which was up 4% on Monday also dropped a little over $2 to close out at $66.88.

Besdies the Iraqi deal, factors in play in the selloff were also that the CME Group raised initial margins on crude oil futures by almost 16% which probably spurred sell offs, and the dollar also hit a 4 year high, which continued to push commodities down across the board. 

On the NYMEX Tuesday both products tanked,  ULSD ended up at 2.1544 (-.0580) and gas closed at 1.8116 (-.0694). 

EIA Inventories out Wednesday saw draws on Crude (-3.5MMbbls) with builds in distillates and gasoline. NYMEX still closed down, although far more moderately than Tuesday's drop off, with ULSD settling out at 2.1334 (-.0210) and Gas settling out at 1.807 (-.0046). 

The Fed's "beige book" notes came out Wednesday as well and were generally positive on the economy as a whole  and referenced the growth potential from lower energy prices, especially from consumer spending.

There is also some positivity in the shale situation, despite the falling prices from oversupply, analysts are still predicting a minimum increase in production for 2015 of 500,000bpd, in addition to production from new Gulf projects set to come online in the near future. 

Today the trends continued, with Crude landing at 66.81 (-.57), ULSD settling out at 2.1177 (-.0159) and gas at 1.7948 (-0114), possibly on the belief that we're going to see a positive jobs report tommorow. Will be interesting to see how the market reacts to its release. (When was the last time anyone guessed the jobs report numbers correctly, anyway?)

Stay tuned!

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Commodities, Stocks and Consumer Confidence Drop

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November traded down huge today on the NYMEX with ULSD closing down -.0577 to 2.6505, and RBOB closing down -.0769 to 2.4373. October trading ended today, with the month closing ULSD at 2.6472 and RBOB at 2.5869. 

Analysts are predicting a supply build ahead of the EIA data due out tommorow in the neighborhood of 1.5 million barrels on CRUDE. Like we mentioned last week, the stable to increasing supply levels domestically have been a huge factor in keeping prices less volatile globally, in spite of the global insanity happening right now, especially surrounding the air strikes against ISIS.

US Supply is growing, and concerns over Libya's production are waning since they've been hitting production targets, so supply disruption in Iraq becomes an increasingly less catastrophic possibility. US import declines too serve to "free up" global supply for others, which let's everyone relax a little on potential disruptions. 

Brent and WTI are both poised to hit their biggest quarterly declines in 2 years.

The dollar strengthened for the quarter, surging up 7% - the biggest gain for a single quarter since 2008. As we've seen historically, a strong dollar can soften commodity prices, and thats probably another factor in the pullback we've seen. The dollar also impacted stocks this week, causing them to stumble hard Monday, despite increases in consumer spending reported. The concern is that the Fed is winding down its tapering and may hike interest rates in the near future if the economy is advancing and the dollar strengthening - this kind of speculation on the Fed almost always has a ripple of sell offs surrounding it, like we saw earlier this year. 

Stocks went lower today on the backs of energy stocks pushed lower on the dropping prices, and dissapointing consumer confidence index numbers. 

 

 

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