Traders Selling Brent and Crude Oil Spreads

                          This morning WTI crude oil is trading at 93.61 adding 25 cents since the market opened. West Texas Intermediate oil traded near the highest level in almost a week. U.S. crude stockpiles probably increased from the largest in more than two decades, a Bloomberg News survey showed before a government report.

Yesterday, crude oil prices closed higher, lifted by gains in gasoline futures and strong selling of the spread between Brent crude and US crude. Brent’s premium to US West Texas Intermediate futures closed at $11.3 per barrel, after narrowing to just over $11 in afternoon trade, the lowest level since June.

Venezuela’s production of crude and natural gas liquids has stabilized at 3.12million barrels per day after state oil company PDVSA halted a decline in output from the OPEC nation’s second-most productive region, Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said in an interview on Monday. South Sudan will start marketing crude from the end of May after resuming oil production on Saturday, its oil minister said on Monday now that the two Sudan’s have finally reached agreements.

Brazil’s oil regulator, the ANP, said yesterday that it authorized Chevron to restart output from an offshore oil field more than a year after a November 2011 spill forced the No. 2 U.S. oil company to stop Brazilian production.

Speculators Continue To Sell Gold, Silver Futures, Options – CFTC

                            For the second week in a row, speculators shed bullish gold and silver futures and options contracts traded on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, according to U.S. government data, with funds turning net-short silver in one of the reports.

For the week ended April 2, speculators in the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly commitment of traders report chopped the net-long position in gold, returning to levels seen in early March. That essentially wiped out most of the newly established bullish positions built during late March.

For silver, large speculators turned net-short for the first time in the disaggregated report, which dates back to September 2009. These traders are still net-long in the legacy report, but it is the smallest position since at least early 2007.

In the platinum group metals, large speculators returned as buyers for both metals, in both reports; meanwhile, they added to the ever-growing net-short position in copper.

Prices for the metals were mixed during the week to April 2, which is the timeframe covered by the report. June Comex gold fell $21.40 to $1,575.90 an ounce as of April 2. May silver fell $1.431 to $27.248. Nymex July platinum gained $4.40 to $1,574.20, while June palladium rose $8 to $769.40. Comex May copper fell 6.4 cents to $3.3785 a pound.

Crude Oil slightly higher, though looking for catalysts

             Crude Oil futures are trading slightly higher in Asia Tuesday, though catalysts to really move crude significantly in one direction or the other appear to be on short supply. 

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for May delivery rose 0.07% to USD93.42 per barrel in Asian trading Tuesday after settling 0.37% at USD93.04 a barrel on Monday in the U.S. 

The Bank of Japan’s massive new monetary easing program was seen as the catalyst to lift oil higher Monday. The Bank of Japan conducted its first government bond purchasing operation early Monday when it bought JPY1.2 trillion in Japanese government debt maturing in five years or more. 

Elsewhere, Brazil announced it will allow Chevron to resume oil production. The Brazilian government halted Chevron’s activities there after a small 2011 spill at the Frade Field. Chevron is the second-largest U.S. oil company. Brazil is vying with OPEC member for the title of South America’s largest oil producer.