DBO: PowerShares DB Oil ETF Market Currents Page 6

Quote & Headlines Market Currents StockTalk

All
| Earnings
| Dividends
| M&A
| On the move

Monday, August 27, 2012, 2:39 PM Despite assurances from Venezuela's energy minister that the fire at the country's biggest refinery will be extinguished in the “next few hours,” doubts grow that the facility can be restarted soon following Saturday's explosion. Ahead of Oct. 7 elections, critics say the tragedy is an example of problems at the state-run oil company and emblematic of government incompetence. Comment! [Energy, Global & FX]
Monday, August 27, 2012, 12:39 PM Refiners post strong gains as Gulf Coast refineries shut down with Isaac's approach: Marathon (MPC +1.7%) and Phillips 66 (PSX +0.2%) shut two Louisiana refineries with a combined capacity of 711K bbl/day, while Valero (VLO +5.5%) shuts two with a combined 405K bbl/day capacity; Another factor pushing up prices is an explosion that shut operations at Venezuela's Amuay refinery. 5 Comments [Energy, On the Move]
Monday, August 27, 2012, 9:36 AM Oct. crude oil has been dropping rapidly in the past ~45 minutes, falling as much as $2.81/barrel to $94.71 from its session high of $97.52. WTI crude now -1.1% at $95.07. (earlier) Comment! [Energy, Commodities]
Monday, August 27, 2012, 9:07 AM Before the weekend, the theme was that Isaac's impact on oil and gas markets would prove minimal - but not now. Tracking models continue to place the storm further west, and the more time it spends over warm Gulf waters, the greater the chance it grows into a major hurricane. Expected production outages and disruptions to oil imports are likely to lead to a further decrease in U.S. inventory levels. (also) 1 Comment [Energy]
Monday, August 27, 2012, 8:19 AM Gulf of Mexico producers have shut-in ~25% of daily oil production and ~8% of natural gas production due to tropical storm Isaac; that's ~333,815 bbl/day of oil and 371MMcf of natural gas. The Gulf accounts for 23% of U.S. crude production and 7% of nat gas, and more than 40% of U.S. refining capacity is contained in facilities located along the Gulf Coast. WTI crude +1.1% to $97.22. Comment! [Energy]
Friday, August 24, 2012, 2:32 PM Add Apache (APA) and Shell (RDS.A) to the growing list of energy producers pulling staff out of the Gulf of Mexico ahead of Tropical Storm Isaac. But the impact on energy markets is expected to be less disruptive than storms in past years: Due to the boom in shale gas production onshore, Gulf gas production is just 6% of the total produced in the continental U.S., down from 17% when Katrina struck in 2005. Comment! [Energy]
Thursday, August 23, 2012, 11:11 AM The recent rise in Brent futures is due to temporary special factors that likely will ease in the next few months, many analysts and traders say. The oil market continues to exhibit a supply surplus, Commerzbank says, expecting Brent at $110/bbl by year’s end. But Goldman expects oil demand to grow “well in excess of production capacity growth” and forecasts Brent to reach $127.50 six months from now. 1 Comment [Energy, Commodities]
Tuesday, August 21, 2012, 6:55 PM Bulls betting on a pop in oil prices outnumber bears five to one, but Cyrus Sanati believes the bulls will get burned, pointing to more signs oil prices will retreat than rise. Money managers may be looking for an October surprise from Iran or Israel, "but it is more likely to come from a bull-crushing release of oil from strategic reserves than from a long-shot bombing raid by Israeli F-16s." 1 Comment [Energy, Commodities]
Monday, August 20, 2012, 3:26 AM Saudi Arabia's oil output +3% M/M in June to 10.1M bpd, overtaking Russia, which pumped 9.9M bpd, as the world's largest oil producer, figures from the Joint Organization Data Initiative (JODI) show. Saudi exports +2.3% to 7.84M bpd, its highest since November 2005. Oil in storage -2.2% to 272M barrels. Comment! [Energy]
Friday, August 17, 2012, 2:37 PM Dennis Gartman says tapping the strategic reserves could have an unexpected result: higher prices. Sure, oil prices would fall at first, but without a distressed market as would be the case after an attack or natural disaster, the market would quickly expect the oil to be repurchased and replaced. And if a big buyer steps into the market, "speculators could drive oil to new highs." (also) 11 Comments [Commodities]
Friday, August 17, 2012, 11:41 AM A release of strategic oil reserves is not warranted by market conditions at this time, says IEA head Maria Van Der Hoeven, calling the market "sufficiently supplied" and reminding the stocks are there to bridge serious disruptions. Yesterday, chatter hit that the WH (or is it the reelection campaign) is considering an SPR release. 6 Comments [Commodities]
Friday, August 17, 2012, 11:21 AM No sooner does news hit of the widening spread between Brent (BNO) and WTI (USO) crude than it suffers a sharp reversal. Brent is off 1.3% today (with WTI +0.2%) as a U.K. energy ministry spokesman makes noise about doing something in response to high oil prices. Comment! [Commodities]
Friday, August 17, 2012, 4:09 AM After a period of cutting dependence on foreign oil, particularly from the Persian Gulf, imports to the U.S. from Saudi Arabia have picked up, growing 26% on year to 1.45M bpd in the first five months of 2012. The rise is partly driven by the sanctions on Iran, but again leaves the U.S. increasingly exposed to the instability in the region. 3 Comments [Energy]
Thursday, August 16, 2012, 3:58 PM Don't get too excited about rising oil prices on better economic data, Neil Atkinson warns: "Yes, we’ve had some good figures out of the U.S. but I think people tend to get over-excited. In Europe, we’re in the middle of a slow death, and we’ve got issues in China." He dismisses as "summer madness" a Merrill Lynch report that oil could jump another 14% in the event of a QE3. 1 Comment [Energy, Commodities]
Thursday, August 16, 2012, 2:42 PM Prices for U.S. benchmark crude have jumped 20%-plus since June, but crude prices in the rest of the world have climbed even more. Thanks to the rally in Brent crude relative to WTI, the spread between the two is now back above $20 and at its highest level YTD. Since gasoline prices tend to be more closely correlated with Brent prices, the widening spread means more pain at the pump. 3 Comments [Energy, Commodities, U.S. Economy]
Thursday, August 16, 2012, 10:32 AM The most important factor driving oil prices higher recently has been changing assessments of how strong the world economy will perform over the next six months, James Hamilton writes. Markets seem to be betting that favorable economic trends in the U.S. and China are enough to outweigh weakness in Europe, but "whether markets have [it] right remains to be seen." 1 Comment [Energy]

DBO PowerShares DB Oil ETF

DBO

PowerShares DB Oil ETF