Crude oil futures opened marginally higher tracking sharp gains in the Asia equities with investors keying into comments from the head of the U.S. Federal Reserve emphasizing an ongoing commitment to monetary stimulus. Asia stocks climbed Thursday, the last day of the month with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index trading up 0.9%, while the Shanghai Composite Index up 0.4%. Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average rose 2%, South Korea’s Kospi advanced 1.1%, and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index moved up 0.7%.
www.orangecommodities.com
WTI crude oil tumbled Wednesday after stockpiles of crude rose in top consumer the United States, pressuring an already well supplied market. Inventories of crude oil rose by 1.13 million barrels in the week to Feb. 22, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a weekly report. Distillate stocks, including heating oil and diesel, rose 557,000 barrels. Meanwhile, prices drew support from indications the U.S. economy is improving.
The National Association of Realtors said earlier that its pending home sales index rose by 4.5% in January, beating expectations for a 1.5% gain. Year-on-year, pending home sales rose at annualized rate of 10.4% last month, above expectations for an 8.2% increase. Separately, the U.S. Commerce Department said that total
durable goods orders, which include transportation items, tumbled by a seasonally adjusted 5.2% in January, compared to expectations for a drop of 4.4%. The U.S. is the world’s biggest oil-consuming country, responsible for almost 22% of global oil demand.
In fundamental news U.S. oil consumption posted an unexpected drop in December, pulling total demand for 2012 to the lowest annual level since 1996, the U.S government said.
Norway has increased its estimate for discoverable offshore oil and gas by 15 percent after mapping out an Arctic zone bordering Russia and the seas off an island near Iceland.
Russian state-owned energy companies Rosneft and Gazprom moved closer to landmark deals with China urged by President Vladimir Putin to forge deeper ties with Asia’s growing energy markets.
Hess Corp said it shut down its 70,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery in Port Reading, New Jersey, according to a filing with state pollution regulators. Royal Dutch Shell this morning announced that it would suspend drilling off the Alaska coast for the balance of the year.
The US dollar eased after Mr. Bernanke’s testimony before US lawmakers supporting the FOMC stimulus package and programs.
Natural gas futures closed in negative, erasing earlier gains after weather forecasts turned warmer. Natural gas inventories are expected to decline by 165-170bn cubic feet, actual data will be released by EIA later in the day. Natural gas is trading at 3.457 trading on a positive note this morning.
Source :- Fxempire
Thank you so much sharing for informative valuable post. Many people will profit from this post in their business Great Job, Keep it up.
ReplyDeleteMCX Live Rate