IBT:Heating Oil, Natural Gas and Gasoline Futures Outlook
Oil demand has been falling in the U.S., and the Energy Information Administration said that trend continued this week. EIA said Wednesday that petroleum consumption fell 3.2 percent when compared with levels from a year ago. Wholesale gasoline demand was up 0.5 percent. That was the first increase in weeks.
Trade Heating Oil, Natural Gas and Gasoline in Minutes
On Friday, gas prices extended losses to hit a four-week low after the Commodity Weather Group said that it expected late-June temperatures in the U.S. Midwest, East and South to "underperform" the significant heat seen in the first half of the month.
Weather service provider AccuWeather said that New York was expected to have a seasonally normal high of 79 degrees Fahrenheit (26 Celsius) on June 22. The city had a high of 95 degrees on June 9.
Moderating temperatures across most parts of the U.S. over the past week have weighed heavily on prices, after an early-June heat wave boosted futures to a ten-month high of USD4.961 per million British thermal units.
Also Friday, industry research group Baker Hughes said that the number of active rigs drilling for natural gas in the U.S. last week fell 1% to 870.
Despite the decline, gas rigs were at a level widely expected to lead to further production gains.
At the pump retail gasoline prices fell by a penny on Friday to a new national average of $3.675 per gallon, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. Gasoline has dropped 25.1 cents in the last month, but it's still 96.8 cents higher than a year ago.
In other Nymex trading for July contracts, heating oil gave up 2.05 cents to settle at $2.9833 per gallon and gasoline futures lost 0.34 cent to settle at 2.9460 per gallon. Natural gas fell 8.7 cents to settle at $4.325 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Shayne Heffernan
Shayne Heffernan oversees the management of funds for institutions and high net worth individuals.
Shayne Heffernan holds a Ph.D. in Economics and brings with him over 25 years of trading experience in Asia and hands on experience in Venture Capital, he has been involved in several start ups that have seen market capitalization over $500m and 1 that reach a peak market cap of $15b. He has managed and overseen start ups in Mining, Shipping, Technology and Financial Services.
