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Your Daily Energy Report for May 09, 2024
Posted on 2024-05-09
Crude Oil
Crude Oil futures for June settled up $.27 or .342% at $79.26. Oil prices remained close to a recent peak on Thursday, buoyed by indicators from both China and the U.S. suggesting potential increases in demand, counteracting sluggish current demand for U.S. distillates and gasoline. U.S. gasoline and diesel demand hit their lowest seasonal point since the onset of the 2020 pandemic, according to the latest weekly data from the EIA. Meanwhile, in China, crude oil imports rose compared to the previous year in April, with both exports and imports seeing growth last month, indicating an uptick in domestic and international demand as Beijing aims to stabilize its economy. Conversely, in the U.S., the number of fresh claims for unemployment benefits climbed to the highest level in over eight months last week, signaling a cooling labor market. Analysts suggest that this could prompt the U.S. Federal Reserve to consider interest rate cuts this year, potentially lowering borrowing costs and stimulating economic growth and oil demand.Natural Gas
Natural Gas futures for June settled up $.114 or 5.213% at $2.301. U.S. natural gas futures saw a robust surge of over 5% on Thursday, marking their highest point in nearly four months. This upward momentum was driven by a smaller-than-anticipated increase in storage, raising expectations for strong demand in the upcoming weeks alongside a reduction in production. Last week, U.S. utilities injected 79 bcf of gas into storage, falling short of the market's forecasted 87 bcf increase. Concurrently, production has seen a decline of around 2.3 bfcd over the past six days, hitting a preliminary low for 16 weeks at 95.5 bcfd. Additionally, gas flows to the LNG export facility in Freeport are expected to reach a 16-week peak of 1.7 bcfd.