Yesterday's session had its oddities. Oil prices started working lower early Thursday morning as Asian traders reassessed the US reaction to this week’s DOE figures. Where Americans saw draws in refined products, Asians saw a build in crude oil stocks that might have trouble getting worked off in the existing low utilization environment – despite the increase in refinery use in this latest set of supply & demand numbers. [More]

Oil prices were higher yesterday as traders were buying commodities and equities in the wake of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s testimony before the House of Representatives, where he told them that interest rates will remain low for several months yet to come. [More]

The oil complex was lower yesterday as traders took profits on long holdings in oil and investors disgorged risk across the board. Yesterday’s trading returned to the pattern seen two weeks ago, before Presidents’ Day, when we saw the dollar higher, equities lower and commodities under selling pressure. [More]

Oil prices were higher again yesterday, making it five in a row and nine out of the last 10 days higher. Crude oil prices kept a fairly tight range and settled at its highest level since January 12th. Traders were talking about a strike at France’s Total refineries. There are six throughout the country and workers from other refineries are considering joining the work stoppage. The problem started with the company’s (Total’s) decision to close its refinery at Dunkirk. The great fear is that global [More]

Thursday afternoon’s Fed decision to raise the discount rate by 25 basis points helped the US dollar and hurt equities and commodities in trading Thursday evening and late night. But, after following that line into Friday morning, the “appetite for risk” sharpened and what started as mild peckishness developed by Friday afternoon into ravenous hunger. Commodities and equities that had been in the red turned into the green and finished strong. [More]

This week’s DOE report was surprisingly upbeat for distillate, showing a larger-than-expected drawdown in stocks and a minor improvement in demand. Gasoline stocks increased, but imports dropped 459,000 bpd and output was down 379,000 bpd. Demand dropped 245,000 bpd, but there was still a net movement of 593,000 bpd away from the supply side. It will be interesting to see if that holds up next week, after an increase in utilization of 0.64% this week. [More]

The dollar came back strongly yesterday, and the euro gave back most of its gains from Tuesday. Traders cited the most recent minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), which were released yesterday. In these, the Fed discussed reasons that lead it to believe the US economy is strengthening – an end-result that should ultimately lead to higher and more normal interest rates. [More]

Equities rallied, the dollar dropped and investors rushed back into risk yesterday. Gold, silver and oil prices all benefited heavily. The buying only seemed to gather pace throughout the morning. It seemed that either the psychology or the underlying economy had a remarkable transformation over the holiday weekend. Some of it could be early buying against the seasonal tendency, or some could be concern over Iran. [More]

Curiously enough, the US is not the only country that had banks and markets closed yesterday. Many Asian markets, including those in China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan were closed for the Lunar New Year. They will be closed all week long. And it is Carnival in Brazil and some other South American countries. Markets will be closed there until Wednesday. [More]

New Yorkers dug out a little more easily than their counterparts in Washington, DC, and the markets were open and moving yesterday. Oil prices were higher overnight on Wednesday, they sold off as the US dollar rallied, but they rallied later in the day when equities rallied. By the time everything was said and done, oil prices were higher, the DJIA was up 105.81 points and the US dollar was higher, too. [More]