Market Commentary

Energy prices closed lower on Friday and for the week mainly driven by oil and fuel demand concerns in China, ceasefire discussions between Israel and Hamas and 5 oil rigs coming online in the US. Russia, Iraq, and Kazakhstan collectively said they would reduce their oil output by 2.284 million […]

Energy prices were mixed in yesterday’s markets driven mainly by lower US equites markets and initial unemployment claims coming in much higher than expected. Jobless claims came in at 243,000, up 20,000 from last week, the estimate was for claims to be at 229,000. This report was favorable for the […]

The Baker Hughes Rig Count had oil rigs down 1 to 478 oil rigs, last year there were 537 and the 5-year average is 496 and the 5-year high is 784. As has been mentioned, despite lower rig counts US crude oil production has held steady right around 13 million […]

With the CPI falling, surveys have shown that the market is now expecting an 89% chance of an interest rate cut in September 2024 up from the previous 73% chance. The general thought is that if the Federal Reserve starts to cut interest rates it will become more accommodative to […]

Energy prices have pulled back over the last few days. Crude oil prices are being helped by the ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas, and the fact that Hurricane Berly’s potential to disrupt energy facilities is now passed. Overall, the impact from Berly appears to have been limited. Some production […]

The API inventory report called crude oil stocks up 914,000 barrels, gasoline stocks up 3.843 million barrels, and distillates were down 1.178 million barrels. The average estimates for the DOE report today from the Bloomberg survey are for crude stocks to be down 2.381 million barrels, gasoline inventories down 1.299 […]

There continues to be an optimistic outlook for summer demand for crude oil and refined fuels, which has helped push the current run higher. Also supportive to prices was a report that the state-owned oil company in Ecuador declared a force majeure on deliveries of heavy crude exports after the […]

Baker Hughes reported that 3 crude oil rigs came offline this past week in the US down to a total of 485 rigs. US oilrigs have fallen by 121 in 2023 and by 15 in 2024 thus far. Energy prices closed lower on Friday but had another week of gains […]

The Baker Hughes Rig Count had oil rigs down 4 to a total of 488 oil rigs and last year there were 552 oil rigs in operation. As we have said before, despite the decline in rigs US crude oil production has been the highest it has ever been nearly […]

Energy markets were mixed yesterday with crude oil and ULSD higher and RBOB down on the day. Supporting prices are strong world oil demand forecast from the US and OPEC for the balance of 2024 and 2025. In a monthly report released yesterday, OPEC left its forecast for oil demand […]

Crude oil and refined product price fell slightly on Friday after a better than expected US jobs reports for May 24 lowered the probability of the Fed cutting interest rates this year. After the good US jobs report the US dollar rose by 0.8% which put downward pressure on crude […]

The average estimates for the DOE inventory report this morning from the Bloomberg survey are for crude oil supplies to decrease by 1.185 million barrels, gasoline supplies down 1.122 million and distillates down 137,000 barrels. The API estimates reported last night showed crude oil stocks down 6.490 million barrels,  gasoline […]