Petroleum futures were trading slightly in the red in the overnight session on Monday amid losses in European shares and in US stock market index futures, despite weakness in the US dollar and news that some European countries have started to ease their COVID-related restrictions. Market participants awaited Canadian housing starts, the US Housing Market Index, and the US Empire State Manufacturing Index for further direction.
Reuters reports that the UK has reopened its economy after a four-month long lockdown. France and Spain have also eased their coronavirus-related restrictions in recent weeks as vaccination rates continue to accelerate. The Netherlands eased travel restrictions on Saturday ahead of the summer holiday season.
Chinese industrial output rose 9.8% y/y last month, matching expectations. Retail sales in China rose 17.7% y/y in April, missing expectations at 24.9%. Despite neutral-to-unsupportive economic data releases, the Shanghai Composite added 0.8% overnight and the Hang Seng closed 0.6% higher. On the other hand, the Nikkei fell 0.9%. In European news, the Italian Consumer Price Index rose 0.4% last month, matching forecasts. As of this writing, European shares were trading in the red with the DAX down 0.3%, the CAC 40 having lost 0.5%, and the FTSE 100 having dropped 0.7%. US stock market index futures were seeing losses of around 0.4%, as of this writing. In supportive news, the US dollar index was down 0.1%.
Petroleum futures strengthened on Friday amid gains in equities and weakness in the US dollar. WTI rose $1.55 to settle at $65.37/bbl and Brent crude added $1.66 to close at $68.71/bbl. RBOB futures settled 3.13 cents higher at $2.1266/g and ULSD (HO) futures gained 3.53 cents to $2.0362/g. According to Platts, New York Harbor ULSD, HSHO, and ULSHO barge differentials to NYMEX held steady at +0.75c/g, -26.00c/g, and -18.25c/g, respectively. Also per Platts, propane prices rose along with crude prices on Friday as Mt. Belvieu LST and non-LST prices both rose 1.25 cents to 81.375c/g and 80.875c/g, respectively. Conway spot prices strengthened 1.125 cents to average 79.500c/g.
Natural gas futures edged down 1.2 cents on Friday, settling at $2.961/mmBtu with a looser US market balance expectation for this week, despite a stronger two-week degree day forecast. The National Hurricane Center sees no tropical cyclones in the Atlantic in the next 48 hours.
