Petroleum futures were falling further in the overnight session on Tuesday amid strength in the US dollar, despite gains in European shares and flat-to-higher trade in US stock market index futures. Market participants looked ahead to US international trade in goods and services figures, the US Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), and Canadian merchandise trade data for further direction.
The Japanese GDP fell 1.0% in the first quarter, while expectations called for a 1.2% drop (Reuters poll). Nevertheless, the Nikkei closed 0.19% lower and the Shanghai Composite dropped 0.54%, while the Hang Seng edged down just 0.02%. In European news, first-quarter GDP growth for the Eurozone was revised up from -0.6% to -0.3%, while the Econoday consensus called for no revision. The ZEW Survey in Germany showed sentiment on current economic conditions was stronger than expected (-9.1 versus -28.0 expected), but that sentiment on future conditions deteriorated more than predicted (79.8 versus 85.3). Industrial production in Germany fell 1.0% in April, while forecasts called for a 0.7% increase. Also unsupportive, the French merchandise trade deficit widened from E6.07bn to E16.24bn, missing expectations at E6.14bn. Retail sales in Italy were expected to show a 0.5% rise in April, but instead fell 0.4%. The DAX was up 0.1% this morning, the CAC 40 had added 0.3% and the FTSE 100 had gained 0.4%. US stock market index futures were trading flat to higher with futures for the Dow down 0.06%, whereas S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures were seeing gains of 0.15% and 0.47%, respectively. Unsupportive for crude oil prices, the US dollar index was up 0.14% as of this writing.
The complex weakened yesterday amid mixed trade in European and US equities, despite weakness in the US dollar. Brent crude fell 40 cents, closing at $71.49/bbl, and WTI lost 39 cents to settle at $69.23/bbl. RBOB futures weakened 1.84 cents, settling at $2.1931/g, and ULSD (HO) futures edged down 43 points to settle at $2.1156/g. New York Harbor HSHO and ULSHO barge price differentials to NYMEX weakened by 1.6 cents and 25 points to -33.25c/g and -21.75c/g, respectively, per Platts. Meanwhile, the ULSD differential held steady at +0.10c/g. June propane prices fell along with crude yesterday. Per Platts, Mt. Belvieu LST prices fell 62.5 points to 91.250c/g, and non-LST prices at the Texas hub weakened by 50 points to 91.500c/g. Conway prices lost 50 points, hitting 88.750c/g.
Natural gas futures traded on NYMEX fell 2.7 cents yesterday, settling at $3.070/mmBtu, despite a stronger two-week cooling degree day forecast and a higher nuclear power outage rate. As of this morning, no tropical cyclone activity is expected in the Atlantic over the next 48 hours by the National Hurricane Center.
