Crude oil prices traded on both sides of unchanged on Thursday, and gasoline prices lost almost six more cents after the Nymex raised margins. Traders were trying to align contracts, one with the other, and they were trying to figure out which factors will matter most in this market, moving forward. [More]

It may be over. All of it, everything. The Mississippi River flooding was a red herring, a freak of Nature that diverted attention away from the major influences in this market. Those influences are, and have been for two or three years now, the Federal Reserve’s policy on interest rates and the impact they have on the US dollar. [More]

The oil complex was higher on Tuesday, and gasoline prices took back another dime in what has to be one of the most humbling rallies-after-a-collapse in commodities trading history. Prices advanced on reports that a surging Mississippi River – shown at left on Monday, where it meets the Missouri River – has already closed down refining units and disrupted transportation of refined products. [More]

Oil traders must have more lives than cats right now. This market has had everything from Japanese quakes and tsunamis to the death of bin Laden to a dollar jumping up and down like a cardiac jumping bean to now worrying about a slug of water, being carried down the Mississippi the way a snake swallows a pig, putting out the power of as many as a dozen refineries. [More]

Oil prices have been all over the lot recently, and refined products were down more than nine cents a gallon at 4:30 AM, but had rallied to minor losses before the opening. The Labor Department’s monthly employment report showed more people finding work – at the same time that it showed more people looking for work. [More]

What started on Monday with higher margin rates continued on Thursday with margin calls as longs watched losses mount - or saw profits evaporate - in positions in precious metals and oil. [More]

Oil prices were lower on Wednesday as traders reacted to this week’s DOE report, which showed drawdowns in both distillate and gasoline inventories. [More]

The oil complex returned to watching the US dollar and equities in order to get a handle on the direction of energy prices. Gold and silver prices seem to have been following the same script, and they were lower on Tuesday, starting in overnight trading and following through into the morning part of trading. [More]

Oil prices were hammered in trading Sunday night into Monday morning, and it looked like we were in the middle of the long-awaited selloff, correction or reversal that has been giving us glimpses of what it is going to look like for the last two weeks. We are seeing steep declines, based on tangential issues, but they are not following through … yet. [More]

Oil prices are dramatically lower this morning after President Obama announced over the weekend that US forces had killed Osama Bin Laden. Traders speculated that oil supplies from central Asia and the Middle East might now be more secure after the demise of the al Qaida leader, and all three major oil contracts were lower in trading overnight. [More]