Fueling Strategy: Please partial fill only tonight, Saturday AM wholesale prices will drop 4 cents – Be Safe Today!
NYMEX Crude $ 44.44 UP $1.2800
NY Harbor ULSD $1.4096 UP $0.0277
NYMEX Gasoline $1.3016 UP $0.0292
NEWS
Crude-oil futures rallied Friday as slow job growth in August diminished the likelihood that the Federal Reserve will boost interest rates at a meeting later this month, while Russia’s president called on producers to agree to limit output at an upcoming meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s comments, however, appeared to contradict what the country’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak reportedly said a day earlier—that there was no need for talks with other oil producers with prices near $50 a barrel. Oil prices, meanwhile, suffered their worst weekly loss since early July. October West Texas Intermediate crude rose $1.28, or 3%, to settle at $44.44 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices, which tallied a loss of more than 9% over the past four sessions to settle at a three-week low on Thursday, suffered a weekly loss of roughly 6.7%. That was the worst weekly loss since the week ended July 8, FactSet data show. November Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange climbed $1.38, or 3%, to $46.83 a barrel. For the week, the contract was down about 5.3%.
Crude had found some support early Friday on “expectations that Russia will play a key role in pushing OPEC’s hand to cut supply,” said Naeem Aslam, chief market strategist at ThinkMarkets. However, data from Bloomberg shows that OPEC output has touched another record high, “so the best case scenario is only a supply freeze not a cut,” he said. In an interview with Bloomberg, out on Friday, Putin urged oil-producing nations to agree on a production cap at an informal meeting in Algeria later this month, saying “it was the right decision for world energy.” Putin further said it would be unfair to expect Iran, which is recently emerging from the lifting of economic sanctions, to cap output as it tries to return to pre-sanction levels. He said he hopes Saudi Arabia would participate in a deal. Saudi’s foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir on Thursday reportedly said that some sort of a production agreement could be made between OPEC and non-OPEC producers at the meeting this month. Over in the U.S. Friday, meanwhile, data from Baker Hughes revealed that the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil, a proxy for oil activity, edged up by 1 to 407 rigs in the latest week.
Weak jobs data
Oil prices Friday gained more ground after data in the U.S. showed that the pace of hiring slowed sharply in August, rising by a less-than-expected 151,000 jobs. “The jobs number was strong enough to signal that the economy is growing, which minimizes downside pressure on the demand for oil,” Mark Watkins, regional investment manager at U.S. Bank’s Private Client Group in Park City, Utah.
The news lowered the potential for the Federal Reserve to raise rates at its meeting later this month and briefly pressured the dollar. However, experts said the Fed could still raise rates in September, though a move at the last meeting of the year is more likely. The ICE U.S. Dollar Index edged up by 0.2%, after posting losses shortly after the employment report. Lifting benchmark interest rates in the U.S. would usually push the dollar higher. A stronger buck tends to put make dollar-pegged commodities, like oil, more expensive to buyers using other currencies.