Petroleum futures were trading in the red in the overnight session on Monday amid fresh lockdowns in Europe and mixed trade in European equities and in US stock market index futures. According to Reuters, Germany is set to extend its lockdown to a fifth month, after infection rates exceeded the level at which authorities say hospitals will be overstretched. In France, nearly a third of population entered a month-long lockdown on Saturday. It was a quiet morning on the economic calendar, with market participants looking ahead to US existing home sales data for further direction.
Asian stock markets closed mixed overnight with the Shanghai Composite up 1.1%, while the Hang Seng fell 0.4% and the Nikkei dropped 2.1% lower. As of this writing, European shares were trading mixed near the unchanged mark with the FTSE 100 down 0.1% and the CAC 40 having lost 0.3%, whereas the DAX was up 0.1%. US stock market index futures were seeing similar trade this morning. Futures for the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were up 0.1% and 0.7%, respectively. Dow futures were trading in opposite direction, down 0.2%. The US dollar index was flat.
Petroleum futures settled mostly higher on Friday amid mostly higher trade in US equities, another attack by Houthi forces at a Saudi Aramco facility in Riyadh, and Goldman Sachs revising higher its oil price forecast for 2021. WTI crude rose $1.42 to settle at $61.42/bbl and Brent crude added $1.25 to close at $64.53/bbl. RBOB futures edged down 10 points, settling at $1.9431/g, while ULSD (HO) futures strengthened 3.81 cents to $1.8223/g. According to Platts, the New York Harbor ULSHO barge differential to NYMEX strengthened by 75 points to -14.50c/g, while ULSD and HSHO barge differentials held steady at -0.25c/g and -23.25c/g, respectively. Also per Platts, propane saw flat-to-higher prices on Friday as Mt. Belvieu LST prices remained at 88.375c/g, while non-LST prices strengthened by 25 points to 87.750c/g. Conway spot prices rose one cent to 82.500c/g.
Natural gas futures rose 5.4 cents on Friday, settling at $2.535/mmBtu amid a stronger two-week heating degree day forecast and a tighter US market balance expectation for this week. As of this morning, the latest 1-5 day outlook based on the European model calls well-above-normal temperatures across the eastern half of the country. The 6-10 day forecast is also unsupportive with above-normal temperatures expected in both the Midwest and the Northeast.
