The oil market settled yesterday at a five-week high as the bulls continued to push quotes higher. Petropolitical factors were cited yesterday as reasons for the advance, but it is clear to us that the buying came first and the reasons were tagged on later. [More]

P Pirces were higher last week, as the bulls used the lighter volume to lift quotes. As we have noted, this complex has a long history of making moves and turns during holiday weeks because it requires less activity to move prices. They often use these periods to “paint” the charts, and when everyone comes back they take the new reality at face value, starting from wherever prices are. [More]

O Oil prices dropped yesterday in uninspired, pre-holiday trading. The US dollar continued to post gains, and that seems to have had the final word on a day during which traders were looking over their shoulders at cold weather and petropolitical worries involving Iran. [More]

There was a report out Friday morning, apparently from roughly two weeks ago, that fighting had erupted between Iranian and Iraqi forces over a disputed oil well run currently by Iraq. Iranian forces reportedly occupied the well, although why the news was coming out two weeks after the fact is a question. Arguments over wells are not altogether uncommon; Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have the neutral zone, an area that the two have been unable to agree over sovereignty. [More]

T The US dollar continued its amazing recovery yesterday, although there was some selling later in the day, after the regular session ended. They have jumped more than 5% (against the euro) in two weeks, which is impressive in a currency. The dollar’s ascent has been almost linear, and it has certainly been the result of a fair amount of short-covering. [More]

This week’s DOE report showed good draws in distillate and crude oil stocks, and in refinery utilization. The overall impression was a bullish one, and traders bid prices higher as a result. Those were the headlines – which were enough to push quotes higher – but the real feature that did not make the headlines and should have was the fact that the distillate supply-demand balance had a swing of 696,000 bpd towards the demand side or away from the supply side. [More]

The oil complex had plenty to react to yesterday, with the Producer Price Index, US Production and Opec’s monthly survey all giving the market input. The PPI came in 1.8% higher for November, led higher primarily by higher oil and commodities prices. [More]

Crude oil prices were lower again yesterday, and they are now just one day short of having declined each day for two full trading weeks. Heating oil prices were lower, but not by much at all, and we tend to think of them more as having finished unchanged on the day. [More]

The oil complex was mixed on Friday, with crude oil prices lower, heating oil prices mixed and gasoline prices higher. As a week, though, it was the most bearish week in a very long time. Crude oil prices lost $5.60 a barrel over the course of the week. Heating oil prices dropped 11.83 cents a gallon last week. And gasoline prices were down 13.34 cents a gallon. In contrast, natural gas prices were up 57.7 cents per million Btu last week. [More]

Oil prices started out yesterday by moving higher, as traders reacted to the latest unemployment figures, which were slightly disappointing. That combined with a decline in the Australian unemployment rate to pressure the US dollar lower in early trading yesterday morning ... which, in turn, pushed oil quotes higher. [More]