Crude Oil
Oil prices plunged more than 6 percent to their lowest level in more than a year on Monday, pulling back sharply late in the session as fears of an economic slowdown rattled the market. Brent crude futures settled down $3.35 at $50.47 a barrel. The market settled early ahead of the Christmas holiday. U.S. crude futures settled at $42.53 a barrel, down $3.06.
U.S. crude futures and global benchmark Brent hit their lowest levels since 2017 during the session, putting both benchmarks on track for losses of about 40 percent in the fourth quarter. The fourth-quarter price decline is likely to cause producers to throttle back on their output.
U.S. crude futures have hit the lowest level since June 22, 2017, as jitters have grown about the impact of the escalating U.S.-China trade dispute on global growth and crude demand. Brent crude is at its lowest level since Aug. 17, 2017.
Markets across asset classes have come under pressure as the U.S. government shutdown that began just after midnight on Saturday intensified growth concerns. A gauge of stocks worldwide hurtled toward an eighth straight decline on Monday as investors ignored the U.S. Treasury secretary’s actions to reinforce confidence in the economy and U.S. President Donald Trump criticized the Federal Reserve as “the only problem our economy has.”
The U.S. Senate has been unable to break an impasse over Trump’s demand for more funds for a wall on the border with Mexico, and a senior official said the shutdown could continue until Jan. 3.
Naphtha
There is no product report today due to a holiday in Singapore yesterday.
The January crack is stronger at -$ 1.70 /bbl
Gasoline
There is no product report today due to a holiday in Singapore yesterday.
The January crack is higher at $ 3.00 /bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Gasoline stocks by region.
Distillates
There is no product report today due to a holiday in Singapore yesterday.
The January crack is higher at $ 13.60 /bbl with the 10 ppm crack at $ 14.55 /bbl. The regrade is higher at $ 2.55 /bbl
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Distillate stocks by region.
Fuel Oil
There is no product report today due to a holiday in Singapore yesterday.
The January 180 cst crack has eased to -$ 0.65 / bbl with the visco spread at $ 0.50 /bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Fuel Oil stocks by region.
Hedge Recommendations
Fuel oil cracks have once again eased. We expect to see them ease further, but will not be unduly perturbed if they don’t as our physical sales will benefit from the strength in the market.
Hedge recommendations are essentially made for refiners. These are not trading positions as such. The rationale of these positions is to lock in extraordinary levels for the refiner.
Click Here to see how all our recommendations have fared
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.