Market Commentary

Crude oil prices closed higher on Friday but fell for the 3rd straight week. Price rose Friday by a better than expected US jobs report for April, the US dollar index near a 1-year low and consumer hedgers buying at low price levels. Many analysts point out that the recent […]

JP Morgan Chase bought First Republic Bank a few days ago and CEO Jamie Diamond assured us the bank situation was now stabilized. Yesterday after the close of the energy markets at 4 PM central time, PacWest Bancorp said they we exploring all options including a sale. The market opened […]

The average estimates for today’s DOE inventory report from the Bloomberg survey are for crude oil inventories to be down 1.494 million barrels, gasoline down 2.011 million barrels and distillates down 906,000 barrels. The API update released late yesterday afternoon had crude oil inventories down 3.9, gasoline up 351,000, and […]

The markets will be focused on the Fed meeting which starts today, and this will keep the markets in a tight range until tomorrow when we get the Fed’s announcement on rates and the commentary afterward which traders will be wanting to hear if there are any clues about this […]

Baker Hughes reported late on Friday that 3 crude oil rigs came online this week up to a total of 591 rigs. US oil rigs have fallen by 30 rig this year. The concerns about the Fed raising interest rates and slowing the economy and fuel demand is outweighing the […]

Amos Hochstein, the special presidential coordinator for global infrastructure and energy security said the US could begin to refill its SPR as soon as the third quarter of 2023, if the price is right. However, he cautioned that the timeline would depend on a number of factors, including maintenance on […]

The Fed is expected to raise rates by another quarter point of a percentage at the next meeting. These rate hikes have been the most aggressive in 40 years and that is putting pressure on energy prices. Concerns about higher rates impacting the economy negatively and energy demand have been […]

Data from China was positive overnight helping to support markets. China’s economy grew faster than expected with first quarter GDP up 4.5%. The data also showed that refinery throughput was up in March by 8.8% from the prior year. Balancing out the positive China news is the ongoing concerns of […]

The Baker Hughes Rig Count had oil rigs down 2 to a total of 588 oil rigs and last year at this time oil rigs number 548. The outlook is that rigs would stay fairly stable in this range and that US production will be relatively flat going froward unless […]

Crude oil prices have managed to show gains in each of the last three weeks. This is the longest upside trend so far this year. The OPEC+ announcement of additional cuts was the driving news that overshadowed the ongoing concerns about weak demand. Bloomberg reports the International Monetary Fund has […]

As a reminder, all contracts with MFA Oil are take or pay. The gallons on all contracts need to be used up by the end date of the contract. The DOE inventory report had crude oil inventories down 3.74 million barrels, Gasoline inventories down 4.12 million and distillates down 3.63 […]

The API called crude stocks down 4.346 million barrels, gasoline down 3.970 million and distillates down 3.693 million. The crude oil stocks at Cushion, Ok were also called down 1.035 million. The average estimates for today’s DOE inventor report from the Bloomberg survey is for crude oil to be down […]