Commodity Corner: WTI Slips; Brent Edges Upward

- Commodity Corner: WTI Slips; Brent Edges Upward

Friday, August 12, 2011
Rigzone Staff
by Matthew V. Veazey

Light sweet crude oil for September delivery surged above $87 Friday but settled well below that on mixed economic news.

The WTI received a boost for much of the day after the U.S. Department of Commerce's Census Bureau on Friday announced that retail sales increased 0.5 percent last month. Moreover, the bureau revised upward sales figures for both May and June by 0.2 percent. In addition, it reported that sales at gasoline stations rose by 1.6 percent in July.

"Consumer spending reflects the confidence of the American people, and despite recent economic turbulence, we're still seeing widespread growth in spending," Acting Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank said in a written statement.

The WTI peaked at $87.37 a barrel but settled at $85.38, a 34-cent day-on-day loss, after Thomson Reuters and the University of Michigan reported dramatically lower preliminary consumer confidence figures. The sources' widely observed measure of consumer sentiment plunged 13.8 percent from July to August, hitting its lowest point in 31 years.

The WTI peaked at $87.37 and bottomed out at $84.02.

Brent futures eked out a slight, one-cent gain to end the day at $108.03 a barrel after trading within a range from $107.72 to $108.90.

The consumer confidence news also caused front-month natural gas to end the day lower. The September contract price lost a nickel to settle at $4.06 per thousand cubic feet. Natural gas futures fluctuated from $4.14 to $4.055.

September reformulated gasoline lost less than a penny to settle at $2.82 a gallon. The intraday range for gasoline was $2.81 to $2.86.

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Commodity Corner: WTI Slips, Brent Edges Upward

- Commodity Corner: WTI Slips, Brent Edges Upward

Wednesday, July 06, 2011
Rigzone Staff
by Matthew V. Veazey

An announcement by China's central bank Wednesday contributed to a 24-cent drop in the price of light sweet crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The WTI settled at $96.65 a barrel Wednesday after the People's Bank of China announced plans to raise interest rates by one-quarter percent to 6.56 percent effective July 7. The bank's action marks the third such hike this year. Brent, meanwhile, barely ended the day in positive territory. It gained a penny to settle at $113.62 a barrel.

The interest rate hike, coupled with lingering concerns about the debt crises in Greece in Portugal, have stoked fears of softening oil demand among investors. Providing some support for oil were expectations that the U.S. Energy Information Administration and American Petroleum Institute will report lower oil stocks Thursday. A Platts survey of analysts projects that EIA and API inventory data will reveal a 2.5 million-barrel draw.

The August WTI contract peaked at $97.79 and bottomed out at $95.90. Brent fluctuated from $112.17 to $113.82.

Expectations that temperatures will moderate over the next two weeks throughout the Midwest and East Coast&mdash chilled the price of natural gas for August delivery Wednesday. The front-month contract lost 14 cents to settle at $4.22 per thousand cubic feet.

Natural gas traded within a range from $4.26 to $4.36.

August gasoline futures ended the day slightly below $3.00 a gallon after fluctuating from $2.94 to $3.00 during the midweek session.

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Commodity Corner: Oil, Natural Gas Edge Upward

- Commodity Corner: Oil, Natural Gas Edge Upward

Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Rigzone Staff
by Matthew V. Veazey

Crude oil for July delivery settled higher Tuesday on optimism that Greece's parliament would vote in favor of the country's existing government, paving the way for an austerity program and bailout.

Oil ended the day at $93.40 a barrel, a 14-cent gain, as investors speculated about the outcome of a pending confidence vote in Greek Prime Minister's George Papandreou's government. The country's parliament was set to begin voting at midnight local time.

Surviving the confidence vote would give the Papandreou government momentum to pass a slate of austerity measures through parliament that are key for Greece to obtain debt restructuring loans from the European Union and International Monetary Fund. The austerity program includes tax increases, spending cuts, and privatization measures.

July crude traded within a range from $92.50 to $94.74 Tuesday.

Thanks to new weather forecast models predicting hotter-than-normal temperatures from the Southwest to the Northeast, front-month natural gas gained seven cents Tuesday to settle at $4.39 per thousand cubic feet.

July natural gas futures peaked at $4.41 and bottomed out at $4.305. Gasoline lost three cents to end the day at $2.88 a gallon. The July contract price fluctuated from $2.85 to $2.94.

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