Energy Futures Are Drifting Higher To Start This Week’s Trading With The HO Contract Leading The Way Higher

Energy futures are drifting higher to start this week’s trading with the HO contract leading the way higher, tacking on 3 cents per gallon (1.2%) so far this morning. Gasoline and crude oil futures are trading higher in sympathy, each seeing a ~.6% bump.

The Wagner Group, the Russian paramilitary organization that has acted as the Kremlin’s spearhead in many fronts of the Ukrainian invasion, staged a casual coup over the weekend. The mercenary group took over the southern military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don and was about 120 miles from the Moscow before its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, cut a deal that saw him to Belarus and his troops back to Ukraine. While the mutiny was staged and peaceably quelled within a day, the overtones of chaos and instability are taking credit for today’s bullish sentiment in energy markets.

Tropical Storm Cindy disorganized over the weekend and is now referred to merely as Disturbance 1 by the National Hurricane Center. The system looked as if it might cause some headaches for marine traffic along the Eastern seaboard late last week, but updated forecasts have it sticking out to sea with a 30% chance of reorganizing over the next week.

Last week’s volatile price action saw an across-the-board exit in positions held by energy speculators. Open interest in the ‘big three’ American petroleum benchmarks held by money managers declined last week while new positions in Europe’s Brent and Gasoil contracts ticked up by about 2%.

Baker Hughes reported the shuttering of 6 crude production plants last week, dropping the total operation oil rigs in the US down to 602.