Petroleum futures were seeing gains of over one percent in the overnight session on Monday amid a supportive note on global crude oil prices from Goldman Sachs and gains in European equities and in US stock market index futures, as well as weakness in the US dollar. It was a quiet morning with a quiet day ahead on the economic calendar.
Reuters reports that the speaker of Iran’s parliament said on Sunday that a three-month monitoring deal between Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog, which gives access to images from inside some Iranian nuclear sites, had expired, but both sides have said that the agreement is being extended by a month in order to continue indirect negotiations between the US and Iran that will resume this week in Vienna. Also in the news, Goldman Sachs said that it expects Brent oil prices to climb to $80/bbl in the fourth quarter of 2021, citing that the market has underestimated a rebound in demand.
Asian stock markets closed mixed overnight with the Hang Seng down 0.16%, while the Nikkei edged up 0.17% and the Shanghai Composite added 0.31%. European shares were seeing flat to higher trade this morning with the CAC 40 up just 0.04% and the FTSE 100 having added 0.22%. The Frankfurt Stock Exchange is closed today. As of this writing, US stock market index futures were seeing gains of between 0.35% (Dow f) and 0.57% (Nasdaq f). Also supportive for crude oil prices, the US dollar index was down 0.1%.
Petroleum futures strengthened on Friday amid flat to higher trade in European equities, despite strength in the US dollar and mixed trade in US stock market indexes. WTI rose $1.64 to settle at $63.58/bbl and Brent crude added $1.33 to close at $66.44/bbl. RBOB futures settled 2.13 cents higher at $2.0685/g and ULSD (HO) futures gained 2.38 cents to $1.9882/g. According to Platts, the New York Harbor ULSHO barge differential to NYMEX strengthened 50 points to -21.50c/g, while ULSD and HSHO differentials held steady at 0.00c/g and -31.25c/g, respectively. Also per Platts, propane prices made mixed moves on Friday as Mt. Belvieu LST prices weakened by 25 points to 82.000c/g, while non-LST prices strengthened by one cent to 82.750c/g. Conway spot prices rose one cent to average 80.500c/g.
Natural gas futures edged down 1.9 cents on Friday, settling at $2.906/mmBtu amid a rise of one in the US rig count. The National Hurricane Center sees no tropical cyclone activity in the Atlantic over the next 48 hours.
