Crude Oil
The bears got the better of the bulls yesterday with oil prices falling slightly.
Brent fell by $ 0.61/bbl to settle at $48.73/bbl while WTI fell by $0.75 /bbl settle at $ 45.88/bbl.
Bullish news that OPEC may consider extending production cuts right uptill the end of 1Q2018 was encapsulated by bearish news of Nigeria expecting to shortly restart the Forcados export terminal (one of Nigeria’s largest) and Libya continuing to increase production (already at his highest level since 2014).
Technically, to establish a bull trend, we need Brent to close above $49.29 which is the 5-day MA. Yesterday it managed to breach this level but then fell to close below it.
API Data
The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported 5.8 mil bbls in U.S. crude oil inventories last week, which was larger than expected. While this could be construed as bullish, Gasoline inventories rose by 3.2 mil bbls, which is distinctly bearish. Distillate fuel stockpiles decreased by 1.2 mil bbls
All in all, the data was a bit mixed and the market will look to the DOE data for further action.
Product Markets
As singapore markets are closed today, there is no commentary on the same.
About this blog
This blog post attempts to give a top level summary of the Singapore market goings on to a person who seeks to obtain a directional sense of the market on a daily basis.