NYMEX Overview: Weak Dollar Helps WTI Crude Regains Footing After Swoon West Texas Intermediate crude futures steadied at midday Thursday, as a decent drop in the U.S. dollar helped the petroleum complex regain its footing following its multi-day pullback that sent oil benchmarks to a six-month low.
At 11:55 a.m. ET, the NYMEX January-delivered West Texas Intermediate contract rose about 10 cents to $69.50/barrel, and February WTI rose 5 cents to $69.70/bbl. On Wednesday, January WTI settled at $69.38/bbl, the lowest settlement since June 27.
London-based February ICE Brent crude oil was 10 cents lower at $74.20/bbl, and March Brent also fell by a similar amount to $74.35/bbl.
Refined product futures were slightly lower. January NYMEX RBOB was down about 2 cents at $2.0105 a gallon, and February RBOB slipped 1.70 cents to $2.0170/gal. January ULSD eased 0.5 cent to $2.5710/gal, and February ULSD inched higher by 0.15 cent to $2.5390/gal.
Around noon, the dollar index dropped about 0.5%, as investors awaited Friday's all-important jobs report which will offer the best insight on the health of the U.S. labor market. A lower greenback makes dollar-denominated crude futures cheaper for investors holding the U.S. currency.
Prior to Thursday, both oil benchmarks finished lower for a fifth day, having lost about $8/bbl or around 10% of their value.
Despite last week's 2.2-million-barrel-a-day pledged production cut by OPEC+ led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, oil market participants were generally skeptical over the promised reductions by the cartel given a lack of strong penalties for failing to stick to the quotas.
In the spot market, San Francisco CARBOB premiums jumped about 16 cents to 45 cents above January NYMEX RBOB futures, surpassing Los Angeles CARBOB to be the most expensive cash gasoline across the U.S.
This content was created by Oil Price Information Service, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. OPIS is run independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
--Reporting by Frank Tang, ftang@opisnet.com; Editing by Andrew Atwal, aatwal@opisnet.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
12-07-23 1304ET
