Fuels Market Watch 24

FUEL MARKETS TODAY – Market Overview

Oil prices have been in recovery mode since Friday, but the market remains subdued, and last week ended in the red. WTI (West Texas Intermediate) crude prices in today’s trading session opened at $71.85/b, a recovery of $0.86 from Friday’s opening price of $70.99/b. Gasoline futures prices also opened with modest gains today, but ended last week in the red. Diesel prices continued their downward trend this morning.  

Last week brought significant declines in crude and product prices. WTI ended last week $3.06/b in the red, dropping from $74.40/b at Monday’s opening to $71.34/b at Friday’s market close, a drop of 4.1%. Diesel prices opened Monday at $2.395/gallon and closed on Friday at $2.312/gallon, a loss of 7.42 cents/gallon (3.1%.) Gasoline futures prices opened on Monday at $2.0876/gallon and closed Friday at $1.942/gallon, a major drop of 14.56 cents/gallon (7.0%.)  

Friday brought a rebound in the U.S. stock market, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average recovering by 287 points. There were hopes that this would continue and spread to other markets. However, this morning is bringing additional risk-off sentiment in stock markets combined with oil market volatility. U.S. retail sales data showed very weak growth in September—only 0.1%, while economists had predicted growth of 0.5%. This morning, Sears filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, unable to overcome massive debt and collapsing sales.  

Tensions have risen between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia over the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, a well-known Saudi dissident who is a U.S. resident and a columnist with the Washington Post. There are fears that he was murdered after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. The U.S. has threatened “severe punishment” if this proves to be the case. Saudi Arabia stated that the accusations are baseless. Over the weekend, the official Saudi Press Agency quoted an anonymous government source threatening retaliation if the U.S. takes any action against Saudi Arabia.