Oil prices ended Tuesday’s session with slight gains as investors continued to buy on general “good vibrations,” those vague feelings - that things are getting better in the economy – which have been the mortar holding the edifice of higher oil prices together for 13 months now. Equities were subdued, although they were lightly higher, and investors chose to ignore the rallying US dollar. [More]

As it turns out, Friday’s return to the oil market fundamentals was not the start of any new trend, nor was it, as we thought on Friday, a retreat by the bulls ahead of this abbreviated holiday week (Passover & Good Friday, then Easter). Most markets will be closed for Good Friday, and it looked to us, based on the severe reduction in open interest, that the investment funds may have gotten out of their long holdings and moved off to the sidelines for a week. It does not look that way tonight (last night). [More]

In trading Thursday night into Friday morning, oil prices posted decent gains, based on a resurgent euro (and corresponding weaker dollar). When the Nymex opened, the DJIA was up roughly 50 points, gold was higher, the euro was higher and oil opened and traded higher. The EU had removed a barrier (it had previously insisted on more than Greek bonds as collateral) on Thursday, then backed away from helping Greece, and then hammered out an IMF/EU solution Friday morning. [More]

Prices rallied early yesterday in sympathy with stronger equities prices and a weaker US dollar. Some of the buying, especially in the US dollar, came from profit-taking, or short-covering. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke repeated the Fed’s mantra about the need to keep US interest rates low “for an extended period,” and that helped pressure the dollar lower. And, in Brussels, the European Central Bank announced some eagerly-awaited support for Greece’s debt woes by withdrawing a threat (made earlier) that it might not be willing to lend against Greek bonds as collateral. [More]

The oil complex sold off steeply yesterday, as the US dollar broke out decisively to the upside and this week’s DOE report showed the closest correlation with the weekly API figures possibly seen in years. Both this week’s distillate and crude oil stock changes were remarkably similar in the two reports. Close correlations between the numbers from the two reports has become rare in recent years. [More]

Oil prices were lower in trading overnight as the dollar rallied into this early morning. After they opened on the Nymex, though, crude oil and heating oil prices pulled themselves into positive territory, largely on the back of higher equities prices [More]

In a stunning turnaround from trends seen most of this month, Friday’s steep decline in prices was accompanied by the liquidation of a massive 78,902 contracts in the crude oil contract. Out of that total, 29,201 contracts were April contracts being exited before yesterday’s contract expiration. But 18,628 contracts were liquidated from May’s holdings and another 25,794 June contracts were liquidated. [More]

The US dollar was strong again on Friday, and an increase in India’s interest rate helped scare away the risk appetite that had been so keen. Investors were talking about the continuing lack of any solid plan for Greece’s debt, and that contributed to a continuing advance in the dollar, which helped press oil prices lower. [More]

The US dollar seemed to be on the ropes on Wednesday, lying right on top of major support above 72 euro cents, the dollar had broken one low and seemed fated to fall beneath the critical 72.00 level. And, then some profit-taking came in. Reports that Greece might need to ask the IMF for help sent traders scampering for greenbacks, and the suddenness of the change in opinion seems to have caught investors leaning heavily the wrong way. [More]

A weaker US dollar and a general desire by investors to buy riskier assets helped push oil prices higher yesterday. The dollar seemed to have broken below significant support yesterday, but prices rallied back to close above that line, and they were higher in trading last night [More]