Petroleum futures were trading mixed near the unchanged mark in the overnight session on Monday with gains in US stock market index futures and in European shares, as well as weakness in the US dollar likely supporting, while a continued rise of COVID-19 cases in India (more than 300,000 new cases have been reported today for a 12th straight day) and an increase in Russian oil production were unsupportive. Reuters reports that Russian oil and gas condensate production rose 2%, from 10.25mb/d in March to 10.46mb/d in April, according to Reuters calculations based on an Interfax report. Market participants looked ahead to US manufacturing and construction data for further direction.
Asian stock markets closed in the red overnight with the Nikkei and the Shanghai Composite both down 0.8%, while the Hang Seng lost 1.3%. The Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (Markit/Nikkei) for India came in at 55.5 last month, above the 51.6 consensus. In European news, the final April Markit Manufacturing PMI for the Eurozone came in at 62.9, below consensus at 63.3. The index for Germany also missed expectations by coming in at 66.2 (vs. 66.4), and the French PMI came in at 58.9, also below forecasts at 59.2. On the other hand, retail sales in Germany grew 7.7% in March, well above the Econoday consensus at 3.0%. European shares were trading in the black this morning with the FTSE 100 up 0.1%, the CAC 40 having gained 0.6%, and the DAX having added 0.8%. As of this writing, US stock market index futures were seeing gains of between 0.3% (Nasdaq f) and 0.6% (Dow f). Also supportive for crude oil prices, the US dollar index was down 0.16%.
Petroleum futures lost ground on Friday amid news that Iranian oil production continued to rise last month, weakness in equities, and strength in the US dollar. WTI crude dropped $1.43 to settle at $63.58/bbl and Brent crude fell $1.31 to close at $67.25/bbl. RBOB futures settled 3.01 cents lower at $2.0698/g and ULSD (HO) futures lost 4.03 cents to $1.9211/g. According to Platts, the New York Harbor HSHO barge differential to NYMEX weakened by 10 points to -25.85c/g, while ULSD and ULSHO barge differentials strengthened by 5 points and 75 points to -0.15c/g and -17.25c/g, respectively. Also per Platts, propane prices fell along with crude on Friday as Mt. Belvieu LST prices fell 2.50 cents to 81.500c/g and non-LST prices dropped 4.00 cents to 86.000c/g. Conway spot prices weakened two cents to average 77.250c/g.
Natural gas futures rose 2.0 cents on Friday, settling at $2.931/mmBtu with a tighter US market balance expectation for this week. The National Hurricane Center sees no tropical cyclones in the Atlantic in the next 48 hours.
