NEW YORK – U.S. crude oil futures ended higher for the third consecutive session on Tuesday in thin,
pre-holiday trade, driven by rising expectations for economic growth and increased demand for gasoline and heating oil.
Front-month gasoline January RBF1 touched a session high $ 2.4013 per gallon, the highest intraday price since May 4th in front-month RBOB hit $ 2.4315 a gallon, still supported by higher expectations of a holiday driving demand.
Also, the supply of the New York Harbor was hit by the continued closure of a gasoline-making unit at the Hovensa LLC refinery in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, and the ditch arbitrage window for fuel shipments from Europe.
Front-month January heating oil rose to a new HOF1 26-month high of $ 2.5193 per gallon amid cold weather in the Northeast, the largest regional oil market, although forecasters expect mild temperatures in the last week of the year.
Traders were gearing up for the weekly inventory data, first of these roles in the later days of the industry
group American Petroleum Institute, followed by the U.S. Energy Information Administration data on Wednesday.
U.S. crude oil inventories probably fell by 2.3 million barrels on average last week, an expanded Reuters poll showed on Tuesday. Distillate stocks may have declined 700,000 barrels and gasoline inventories probably rose 1.4 million barrels, The poll also showed. [EIA / S]
BASICS
* On the New York Mercantile Exchange, February crude CLG1, the new front month, settled 45 cents higher, or 0.5 percent, to $ 89.82 a barrel. It hit a session peak of $ 89.97, the highest since December 7 two years high of $ 90.76 hit CLF1 January crude, which expired Monday at $ 88.81.
* U.S. retail gasoline demand rose 0.1 percent last week, Although gasoline prices climbed to a 25-month high
according to the weekly MasterCard Advisors’ spending pulse report. Average gasoline demand increased by 6,000 tons per day 9.188 million bpd in the week to December 17, the report shows.
* AccuWeather.com expects temperatures in the Northeast to generally average lower than normal for the next week, with something milder readings this month end.
* Snow and ice grounded flights over Northern Europe on Tuesday, retailers fretted as they would
struggle to make up lost sales because of bad weather with only four shopping days until Christmas.
Markets News
* U.S. stocks advanced on solid earnings and a flurry of merger action that investors believed would accelerate the market uptrend.
* The euro fell against the dollar in a low volume trading as concerns of more ratings downgrades for debt-strapped euro countries were asked to light up the currency by traders the year ends. The dollar rose 0.1 percent against a basket of currencies. [USD /]. DXY.
* Gold prices rose toward $ 1,390 an ounce in Europe, supported by fresh strength in the euro and the exuberant interest in the metal as a haven from risk for fear of further borrowing strains in the eurozone. [GOL /]
* Copper rose to a re cord high at $ 9,392 per tonne as supply concerns on the market after Chile Collahuasi put my stop shipments, with a falling dollar are also supporting prices.
SETTLE NET PCT LOW HIGH CURRENT DAY AGO
CHNG CHNG VOL VOL CLc1 89.82 0.45 0.5% 89.06 89.97 170,063 33,048 CLc2 90.64 0.48 0.5% 89.85 90.74 54,700 265,975 LCOc1 93.20 0.46 0.5% 92.35 93.43 100,507 106,864 RBc1 2.3985 0.0207 0.9% 2.3725 2.4013 13,553 33,104 RBc2 2.3816 0.0196 0.8% 2.3593 2.3839 29,243 41,056 HOc1 2.5164 0.0269 1.1% 2.4803 2.5193 16,658 34,941 HOc2 2.5291 0.0253 1.0% 2.4852 2.5318 28,555 39,666 TOTAL MARKET VOLUME OPEN INTEREST
CURRENT Dec 20 30D AVG Dec 20 NET CHNG CRUDE 314,110 554,032 677,615 1,359,780 -9,682 RBOB 68,291 107,224 124,690 283,739 3,595 HO 70,135 99,476 109,711 310,862 1,099
SETTLE NET PCT LOW HIGH CURRENT DAY AGO
CHNG CHNG VOL VOL CLc1 89.82 0.45 0.5% 89.06 89.97 170,063 33,048 CLc2 90.64 0.48 0.5% 89.85 90.74 54,700 265,975 LCOc1 93.20 0.46 0.5% 92.35 93.43 100,507 106,864 RBc1 2.3985 0.0207 0.9% 2.3725 2.4013 13,553 33,104 RBc2 2.3816 0.0196 0.8% 2.3593 2.3839 29,243 41,056 HOc1 2.5164 0.0269 1.1% 2.4803 2.5193 16,658 34,941 HOc2 2.5291 0.0253 1.0% 2.4852 2.5318 28,555 39,666 TOTAL MARKET VOLUME OPEN INTEREST
CURRENT Dec 20 30D AVG Dec 20 NET CHNG CRUDE 314,110 554,032 677,615 1,359,780 -9,682 RBOB 68,291 107,224 124,690 283,739 3,595 HO 70,135 99,476 109,711 310,862 1,099
source:reuters
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