Market Commentary

The energy markets continue to be thinly traded with limited traders working and this will be the case next week as well as Wednesday will be the New Year’s Holiday and no markets that day. There will also be no contracts available on Wednesday of next week. Donald Trump has […]

Crude oil price rose on December 24 driven by increased China stimulus to support higher oil demand and market surveys expecting a drop in total US crude oil stocks by 3.2 million barrels and US distillate stocks expected to fall by 2.5 million barrels for the week ending December 20th. […]

The energy markets pulled back into their trading range yesterday mostly on the comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. Powell was out trying to walk back some of the talk about rate cuts and said that stubborn inflation would make the Fed more cautious. Just a couple of weeks […]

The average estimates for the DOE inventory report today from the Bloomberg survey are crude oil down 1.596 million, gasoline up 1.256 million and distillates up 683,000. The API inventory update called crude stocks down 4.7 million barrels, gasoline up 2.4, and distillates up 700,000. The market sold off yesterday […]

The markets have entered the holiday season with limited traders and light volumes. Yesterday was a quiet day, and as this week wears on, the activity will slow down. Then it will get worse as we go through a short trading week next week with Christmas right in the middle […]

The bulls had a nice day yesterday, and prices rebounded, but the question remains: have the bulls done enough? The answer so far is no, but the resistance levels that, if broken, would open a more bullish outlook in the longer term are close. But this could also be an […]

The DOE inventory report had crude oil inventories down 1.43 million barrels putting total US crude oil stocks at 421.950 million barrels. Last year at this time stocks were at 440.773 and the three-year average is 431.063. Current inventory levels put crude at the lower end of the three-year range. […]

The API report called crude stocks up 499,000 barrels, gasoline inventories up 2.852 barrels, and distillates up 2.452. The average estimates for the DOE report today are crude down 861,000, gasoline inventories are estimated to up 510,000, and distillates are estimated to be up 1.582. Bloomberg is reporting this morning […]

OPEC+ has agreed to keep oil production at the current levels for the first quarter of 2025. OPEC agreed to extend the 2 million bpd and the 1.65 million bpd of cuts until the end of 2026 from the end of 2025. The gradual unwinding of 2.2 million of cuts […]

The DOE inventory report came out and it showed crude oil inventories down 5.07 million barrels, gasoline was up 2.36 million barrels, and distillates were up 3.38 million barrels. Propane inventories were down 662,000 barrels, much less than expected. Total stocks are 96.032 million still in a very comfortable position. […]

Energy prices are up here to start a new week and a new month on the news that China’s factory activity grew at its fastest rate in five months in November. Many are giving the government stimulus credit for finally taking effect. Also reports that the ceasefire agreement between Israel […]

The energy markets were down in yesterday’s trading on rumors of a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon who has been negotiating on behalf of Hezbollah. WTI crude did trade under 70 dollars and settled below that as well. The trading volume was light and that could help the moves be […]