A Little Something For Everyone On The Thanksgiving Table

There’s a little something for everyone this morning with RBOB gasoline futures trading lower, ULSD futures moving higher, while WTI is unchanged so far on the day. Prices continue to hover near 2-month highs, but so far seem to lack the conviction needed to push through that resistance.

The API was said to report large builds of 3.6 million barrels of crude oil inventories and 4.3 million barrels of gasoline last week, while distillate stocks declined by 665k barrels. Those data points contributed to a late afternoon pull back for RBOB and WTI, and help explain the relative strength of ULSD this morning. The DOE’s weekly report is due out at its normal time.

This is known as the busiest travel day of the year in the US, and based on the large proportion of people not logged into instant messaging systems this morning, it seems like the trading activity will be sparse this morning, and possibly non-existent this afternoon.

Even though there are 4 calendar days left in the month, and the NYMEX contracts will be open for trading in abbreviated sessions Thursday and Friday, due to spot markets not being assessed either day, this will become the effective last day of November trading for most physical players.

Speaking of winding down, take a look at the LA basis charts below that show the CA spot markets seem to be calming after a bout of extreme volatility this fall.

The EIA got into the holiday spirit this morning, publishing a look at gasoline prices nationwide during Thanksgiving week, and noting the similarities currently to the past 2 years.

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