BLBG:WTI Crude Fluctuates Before U.S. Industrial Output Data
West Texas Intermediate swung between gains and losses before U.S. economic data that may signal when the U.S. Federal Reserve will begin scaling back monetary stimulus in the world’s biggest crude consumer.
Futures fluctuated in New York after falling 2.9 percent last week, the most in five weeks. A series of U.S. government data is due this week, including industrial production figures that are forecast to show output rose in September. It’s “premature” to comment on what decision OPEC will take on production at a December meeting, U.A.E. Energy Minister Suhail Mohammed Al Mazrouei said in Singapore today. The group’s focus is on ensuring oil supplies, he said.
“There’s a lot of economic data this week,” said Ric Spooner, a chief market analyst at CMC Markets in Sydney. “Weaker data will be bad news for the oil market. There is resistance at the 200-day moving average at about $98.70, and support” at $95, he said.
WTI for December delivery was at $97.71 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down 14 cents at 4:35 p.m. Singapore time. The contract increased 0.8 percent to $97.85 on Oct. 25, trimming its weekly decline. The volume of all futures traded was about 63 percent below the 100-day average.
Brent for December settlement gained 51 cents to $107.44 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The European benchmark crude was at a premium of $9.71 to WTI futures, up from $9.08 on Oct. 25.
Factory Output
U.S. industrial production advanced 0.4 percent in September, the same as in the prior month, according to the median of 78 estimates in the Bloomberg survey. Manufacturing probably rose 0.3 percent, compared with 0.7 percent in August, economists estimated.
A two-day meeting at the Federal Open Market Committee will start tomorrow. It convenes after U.S payrolls rose less than projected last month and the 16-day government shutdown took at least $24 billion out of the economy. The Fed is likely to delay lowering its $85 billion in monthly bond purchases until March, according to a Bloomberg News survey of economists conducted Oct. 17-18.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries meets in Vienna on Dec. 4. The U.A.E. is its fourth-biggest producer.
“The decision is always going to be to ensure that the market is well-supplied,” Al Mazrouei said during Singapore International Energy Week today. “We have no benefit in over-supplying or under-supplying the market.”
Iraq Exports
Iraq’s crude exports last month dropped to 62.1 million barrels amid maintenance, according to an oil ministry spokesman. Shipments from the southern terminal of Basra were 54.6 million barrels in September, while exports from Kirkuk in the north reached 7.5 million barrels, Asim Jihad, a spokesman for the oil ministry, said in an e-mail yesterday.
Iran is said to be ready to cut prices if sanctions on the nation’s oil exports are lifted, Reuters said yesterday, without saying how it obtained the information. The country is reaching out to former buyers to compete for market share, according to the report. International sanctions on Iran, aimed at curbing the nation’s nuclear program, have hobbled the country’s oil exports and the financial system supporting them.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Sharples in Melbourne at bsharples@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alexander Kwiatkowski at akwiatkowsk2@bloomberg.net
