Petroleum futures were seeing further gains of around one percent in the overnight session on Wednesday amid gains in European shares and flat-to-higher trade in US stock market index futures, despite strength in the US dollar. Reuters reports that Russian oil and gas condensate output fell slightly from 10.46mb/d in April to 10.45mb/d in May, according to calculations based on an Interfax report. Also in the news, the remaining parties to the Iran nuclear deal will meet today in Vienna to wrap up the latest round of talks on reviving the deal and will adjourn discussions for at least a week, according to Reuters. Market participants looked ahead to the US ADP Employment report for further direction.
Asian stock markets closed mixed overnight with the Nikkei closing 0.46% higher, whereas the Hang Seng lost 0.58% and the Shanghai Composite dropped 0.76%. In economic news, the Eurozone PPI rose 1.0% in April, above the Econoday consensus at 0.9%. On the other hand, German retail sales fell by 5.5% in April, while forecasts called for a smaller decline of 2.6%. As of this writing, the DAX was up 0.03%, the FTSE 100 had added 0.17%, and the CAC 40 had gained 0.23%. US stock market index futures were trading flat to higher this morning with futures for the Nasdaq steady, while S&P 500 futures were up 0.05% and futures for the Dow had edged up 0.12%. Unsupportive for crude oil prices, the US dollar index was up 0.4%.
The complex strengthened yesterday, posting gains of over one percent, amid gains in European equities and weakness in the US dollar, despite mixed trade in US stock market indexes. Brent crude added 93 cents, closing at $70.25/bbl, and WTI jumped $1.40 higher to settle at $67.72/bbl. RBOB futures strengthened 3.35 cents, settling at $2.1704/g, and ULSD (HO) futures climbed 3.32 cents higher to settle at $2.0715/g. New York Harbor ULSD and ULSHO barge price differentials to NYMEX weakened by 20 points and 80 points to +0.20c/g and -21.75c/g, respectively, per Platts. Meanwhile, the HSHO differential held steady at -31.65c/g. June propane prices strengthened along with crude yesterday. Per Platts, Mt. Belvieu LST prices jumped 2.000 cents higher to 91.375c/g, and non-LST prices at the Texas hub strengthened 2.625 cents to 91.125c/g. Conway prices saw a larger gain of 5.000 cents, hitting 88.500c/g.
Natural gas futures traded on NYMEX jumped 11.8 cents higher yesterday, settling at $3.104/mmBtu, with a tightening picture of the US market balance for this week (Refinitiv) and a stronger two-week cooling degree day forecast (GFS). As of this morning, no tropical cyclone activity is expected in the Atlantic over the next 48 hours by the National Hurricane Center.
