Hong Kong Protests Have Investors Worried
November 11, 2019
Crude oil and refined product prices closed higher on Friday mainly due to a large rise in China crude oil imports, a drop in US crude oil rigs this past week, and optimism on a US and China phase 1 trade deal. US equites reached record highs on Friday also which helped support crude oil prices in general.
Price were down in early trading to start the day on Friday as the news hit the wires that the US was not totally on board with dropping tariffs on China in stages. On Friday President Trump said he has not agreed to remove tariffs on Chinese goods, even though China wishes him to do so.
The Baker Hughes Rig Count said that 7 US crude oil rigs came off line last week down to a total of 684 rigs. Last year at this time the US had a total of 886 crude rigs online. The current 684 crude rigs are the lowest oil rigs count since April 14, 2017.
State news agency IRNA reported that Iran confirmed that its forces shot down a drone over its southern port city of Mashshar on Friday and said it belonged to a foreign country.
The Commitment of Traders report showed that managed money funds increased their net long position for the second consecutive week. The funds increased their net long position by 13,512 contracts to 129,389 contracts in the week ending November 5, on a combined NYMEX and ICE futures and options basis.
Many tankers are expected to transport ULSD from Europe and the west coast of India to the US Atlantic Coast through the end of the 2019 to offset the absence of the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery in the market. A fire at an alkylation unit at the 335,000 bpd PES refinery in June and subsequent shut down of the site resulted in the loss of some 150,000 bpd of gasoline capacity and around 100,000 bpd of distillates output.
The violence in Hong Kong escalated over the weekend and that has investors worried, which has commodities and equites lower to start the new week. Police shot and killed one protestor over the weekend.
Reports are saying that the Keystone pipeline has resumed service at reduced pressure.