Fueling Strategy: Please fill as needed today/tonight, Saturday AM wholesale prices will go up one penny – Be Safe
NYMEX Crude $ 52.24 UP $.5400
NY Harbor ULSD $1.6284 UP $.0155
NYMEX Gasoline $1.7462 UP $.0166
NEWS
Oil futures ended at a one-month high Friday after a U.S. airstrike on Syria, though gains were capped by expectations risks to Middle East output would be limited.
Crude held gains after data from oil-field services firm Baker Hughes Inc. showed U.S. producers added 10 oil rigs this week, bringing the total number to 672.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in May finished at $52.24 a barrel, a gain of 54 cents, or 1.04%. Oil had jumped 2.4% in electronic trade following the strikes. For the week, the U.S. benchmark rose 3.2%. June Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange rose 35 cents, or 0.6%, to close at $55.24 a barrel after briefly dipping into negative territory after U.S. jobs data. Brent rose 3.2% for the week.
Prices often jump when tensions rise in the Middle East, where almost 40% of the world’s crude oil is produced. But analysts also said the initial knee-jerk reaction to the airstrike may have been overdone given Syria’s role as a very minor oil producer and the lack of any apparent immediate threat of a spillover that would affect bigger producers. “If we were talking about some sort of geopolitical event in Saudi Arabia, that, to me, would obviously be meaningful and the price action would be a lot larger,” said Stewart Glickman, head of energy research at CFRA, in a phone interview. “Nothing that’s happened in the last 24 hours changes my mind on crude.”
Glickman remains cautious on crude, citing continued growth in already massive U.S. oil inventories and doubts about the willingness of major oil producers, including the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, to maintain an agreement to curb output.
Market bulls have set their sights on signs of strengthening demand for gasoline and other products, which they expect to add to a seasonal rebound in refinery runs that could help pull swollen U.S. inventories back to their long-term average. A weaker-than-expected March U.S. jobs report appeared to weigh on crude in morning activity. The dollar whipsawed following the jobs data, rebounding sharply from a steep, initial sell off and then stabilizing. The dollar’s rebound took some wind out of the sails of oil and other commodities, analysts said, as a stronger greenback products priced in dollars more expensive to buyers who use other currencies.