Conflicting Headlines And Inventory Data Points Continue To Confound The Market

Market TalkThursday, Nov 4 2021
Pivotal Week For Price Action

Energy contracts had their biggest 1-day selloff since July on Wednesday as a steady round of selling that started Tuesday afternoon continued throughout the day. Just when it looked like that the bulls had thrown in the towel and we were in for a technical breakdown, prices have rallied sharply overnight, wiping out most of Wednesday’s big losses as conflicting headlines and inventory data points continue to confound the market.

No official announcement from OPEC yet, but most reports continue to show expectations that the cartel will stick with its current output plan, in spite of pressure from world leaders to increase more.

Headlines about Iran seem to be causing at least some of the whiplash in prices, with news of a return to nuclear negotiations getting credit for some of Wednesday’s selling, followed by Iran claiming that the US had tried to seize one of its oil tankers in the Sea of Oman reminding everyone that negotiating with Iran is a fool’s errand challenging. 

Equity markets have rallied to new record highs after the FOMC made it clear that they still believe inflation levels at their highest levels in 30 years are still transitory, and that the FED can be patient with interest rate hikes. Even though the correlation between energy and equity markets has been close to zero in recent weeks, the market’s reaction to that statement does seem to take a fear-induced selloff off the table for now.

Who would ever guess that on a day when the DOE reported US Gasoline inventories reached a 4 year low, and PADD 1 inventories (home to the NYMEX delivery hub) reached a 7 year low, would also be the day when gasoline futures had their biggest daily drop in nearly 4 months. Of course, given the size of the rally over the past 1, 4 and 18 months, this seems a little bit like the market’s tendency to buy the rumor and sell the news, in this case pertaining to tightening supplies. This is also a good reminder that the futures market is less concerned about where we are today, than where we are headed, and with seasonal factors all pointing to gasoline stocks building steadily over the coming months, and high prices surely to dent consumption, it’s getting harder to see a reason to keep on betting on prices above a 7 year high.

Despite the big bounce this morning, charts near term continue to favor lower prices as refined products are setting lower lows and lower highs on the daily charts ever since prices peaked in late October. The $2.40 range for RBOB and $2.50 area for ULSD look to be good near term pivot points to watch. If prices can climb back above those levels, there’s a chance we see another run at the October highs, but if they can’t, another big move lower seems likely.

One more bearish factor to consider, it wasn’t just futures that were selling off heavily Wednesday, most cash markets saw basis values decline as well, pushing cash markets even further down on the day. When the big physical traders aren’t believing what the robots are doing the exchange, we’ll often see those diffs move contrary to futures, but yesterday’s action suggests that the concern of the winter demand doldrums for gasoline is real. No such concerns for ethanol prices however as spots continue to surge to record highs across the country, even as US ethanol output remains well above normal levels. While the ethanol forward curve has become murky due to a lack of trading in those futures, it looks like there’s 50-60 cents of backwardation between now and the end of the year, which means whenever the ethanol logistics logjam breaks there’s going to be a huge move lower in a hurry.   

Click here to download a PDF of today's TACenergy Market Talk, including all charts from the Weekly DOE Report.

Market Talk Update 11.04.2021

News & Views

View All
Pivotal Week For Price Action
Market TalkWednesday, Mar 27 2024

Week 12 - US DOE Inventory Recap

Pivotal Week For Price Action
Market TalkWednesday, Mar 27 2024

Most Energy Contracts Are Ticking Lower For A 2nd Day After A Trickle Of Selling Picked Up Steam Tuesday

Most energy contracts are ticking lower for a 2nd day after a trickle of selling picked up steam Tuesday. ULSD futures are down a dime from Monday’s highs and RBOB futures are down 7 cents.

Diesel prices continue to look like the weak link in the energy chain, with futures coming within 1 point of their March lows overnight, setting up a test of the December lows around $2.48 if that resistance breaks down. Despite yesterday’s slide, RBOB futures still look bullish on the weekly charts, with a run towards the $3 mark still looking like a strong possibility in the next month or so.

The API reported crude stocks increased by more than 9 million barrels last week, while distillates were up 531,000 and gasoline stocks continued their seasonal decline falling by 4.4 million barrels. The DOE’s weekly report is due out at its normal time this morning.

RIN values have recovered to their highest levels in 2 months around $.59/RIN for D4 and D6 RINs, even though the recovery rally in corn and soybean prices that had helped lift prices off of the 4 year lows set in February has stalled out. Expectations for more biofuel production to be shut in due to weak economics with lower subsidy values seems to be encouraging the tick higher in recent weeks, although prices are still about $1/RIN lower than this time last year.

Reminder that Friday is one of only 3 annual holidays in which the Nymex is completely shut, so no prices will be published, but it’s not a federal holiday in the US so banks will be open.

Click here to download a PDF of today's TACenergy Market Talk.

Pivotal Week For Price Action
Market TalkTuesday, Mar 26 2024

Refined Products Seeing Small Losses Of Around A Penny While Crude Oil Contracts Hover Just Above Break Even

Energy futures are taking a breather to start Tuesday’s trading, with refined products seeing small losses of around a penny while crude oil contracts hover just above break even.

No new news on either the Red Sea shipping or Russian Refining attacks this morning, so Cocoa prices seem to be taking over the commodity headlines while energy markets wait on their next big move.

RBOB gasoline futures set a new 6-month high Monday at $2.7711, which leaves the door open on the weekly charts for the spring rally to continue. A run at the $3 mark is certainly possible in the next few weeks before the typical seasonal price peak is set just before the start of driving season.

A container ship lost power and crashed into the Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore this morning, causing a devastating collapse. While cargo shipping into the area will no doubt be impacted by this event, fuel supplies are unlikely to see any notable change since the 9 fuel terminals in Baltimore are primarily supplied by Colonial pipeline. Barges from Philadelphia refineries do supplement Baltimore supplies at times, and those vessel flows will be impacted at least until rescue operations are completed and the bridge sections removed from the waterway. That said, since shipping up from the Gulf Coast via Colonial is generally cheaper than shipping an NY Harbor-priced barrel south, the amount of supply disrupted by this event will be minimal.

While we’re still waiting on the official forecasts for the Atlantic Hurricane season, early reports continue to suggest that we could be in for a very busy year due to warm water temperatures and a forming La Nina pattern.

Dallas meanwhile is preparing for a different sort of disruption, with city officials encouraging companies to let employees work from home during the solar eclipse on April 8th as metroplex traffic is expected to surge. While some isolated fuel outages are certainly possible if people start panic buying gasoline they don’t need, there’s no reason to expect any widespread impact from the demand spike.

Today’s interesting read: Why AI requires a staggering amount of electricity and may create supply competition for EVs that will end up benefitting fossil fuels.

Click here to download a PDF of today's TACenergy Market Talk.