Market Close: June 16 Up
Jun 16th, 2015 by loren
Oil futures marked their first gain in four sessions Tuesday as traders bet that data due out this week will show another weekly drop in U.S. crude supplies.
Traders stepped cautiously, however, watching fluctuations in the U.S. dollar against a backdrop of Greece’s potential debt default and the expected conclusion of the U.S. Federal Reserve two-day meeting starting Tuesday, followed by a news conference Wednesday afternoon. July crude tacked on 45 cents, or 0.8%, to settle at $59.97 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after tallying a loss of more than 3% over the past three trading sessions. August Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell 25 cents, or 0.4%, to $63.70 a barrel. The month of June has proved to be a quiet one for Nymex oil, as prices remain in a trading range of between $54 and $65, said Taki Tsaklanos, head of research at Secular Investor. “A breach of either price level would be meaningful.”
Late Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute will publish its weekly survey of U.S. oil inventories, followed by the more closely watched report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration Wednesday. The EIA has reported crude-supply declines for the last six weeks in a row.
U.S. commercial crude stocks are expected to have decreased by 2.4 million barrels in the week ended June 12, according to a survey of analysts conducted by Platts. Brent crude is approaching a key stage in its recovery from this year’s lows and technical analysis over the June-July period will give an early indication of whether prices rally toward $80 a barrel, or lose steam and fall to the $50-$60 a barrel range, analysts at BMI Research, a unit of Fitch Ratings, said. “Our core view is for the oil market to remain well supplied in 2015-2016 and for this to keep a lid on prices,” it said. BMI forecasts Brent crude to average $59 a barrel in 2015 and $61 a barrel in 2016, on expectations that Iran will boost oil exports after a nuclear deal is confirmed. Meanwhile, markets are paralyzed by the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee’s interest-rate decision and policy statement due Wednesday, as well as an imminent decision in the Greek debt debate, said Tsaklanos.