Economic Fears Rear Head Again

As traders refocus on macroeconomic fears, oil followed equities lower yesterday, extending the streak of crude oil price losses to seven days.  EIA reports of a larger-than-expected build in crude put downward pressure on markets.  WTI Crude is trading at $52.50, a loss of 14 cents.

Fuel is mixed this morning.  Diesel is trading at $1.8652, a loss of 0.8 cents.  Gasoline is trading at $1.5534, a gain of 0.8 cents.

Equities were down sharply yesterday as macroeconomic fears are becoming the focus of traders once again.  The slowing global economy and fears of contracting manufacturing sectors in the U.S. and Germany led equities lower.  In addition, poor industrial data coming from Asia impacted markets.  Equities and oil finished down nearly 2% yesterday.

The EIA reported a larger-than-expected build in crude stocks, once again surprising markets in the wake of last week’s reduced output from Saudi Arabia and confirming that global markets remain well supplied.  This build went against the API’s reported draw number and the bearish news drove markets lower.  At Cushing, we saw a small draw that did not have much impact on markets.  Gasoline had a small draw as compared to a small expected build.  Diesel had a larger than expected draw.

In OPEC news, Saudi Arabia announced it has fully restored oil output to 11.3 MMbpd after the attacks on its facilities last month and is now focused on the public listing of Saudi Aramco, according to its energy minister.  In Kuwait, oil minister Khaled al-Fadhel expressed his optimism that production will resume in the Saudi-Kuwaiti neutral zone. Additional output there would help secure against supply deficits in the face of possible future attacks on oil infrastructure.