EVENING SNAPSHOT - Americas Markets Summary

14 July 2010 23:00  [Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (ICIS news)--Here is Wednesday’s end of day Americas oil and chemical market summary from ICIS.

CRUDE: Aug WTI: $77.04/bbl, down 11 cents; Aug Brent: $76.77/bbl, up 12 cents
US crude futures drifted lower, towards $76.80/bbl, in after-market selling after it reversed direction and settled in negative territory during the normal floor session. A lower growth outlook for the economy expressed by the Federal Reserve late in the day pressured the stock market and drove down various commodities. Oil prices had experienced some volatility earlier in response to Energy Information Administration statistics. North Sea Brent crude moved into backwardation on short covering ahead of Thursday’s August contract expiration.

NATURAL GAS: $4.306/MMBtu, down 4.8 cents
US natural gas analysts disclosed expectations of a large build - around 80bn cubic feet - in a government storage report. The negative sentiment bogged down the August contract, which settled at a loss, and limited NYMEX trading to a narrow band in the $4.30s/MMBtu range.

RBOB: $2.0665/gal, down 1.56 cents
Reformulated gasoline blendstock for oxygenate blending (RBOB) initially moved up on the coattails of crude oil after the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that crude inventories dropped by 5.1m bbl for the week ended 9 July. But after time, the market reacted to the rest of the report, which showed a decline in gasoline demand and a jump in gasoline inventories. In addition, disappointing retail figures for June with auto and gasoline sales caused the equities market to plunge.

BENZENE: up at $2.64-2.66/gal
A USG (US Gulf) spot benzene deal was heard at $2.64/gal DDP (delivered, duty paid) for July amid an otherwise quiet market. The transaction was in the upper end of the early-day bid/offer range, pushing the July spread up to $2.64-2.66/gal.

ETHYLENE: up at 29.50-30.00 cents/lb
US ethylene for July traded at 29.75 cents/lb, up from 29.50 cents/lb on Friday.

PROPYLENE: up at 43.00-44.00 cents/lb
US refinery-grade propylene (RGP) was bid at 43.00 cents/lb, while polymer-grade propylene traded at 54.00 cents/lb. RGP for July traded on Tuesday at 44.00 cents/lb.

For more pricing intelligence please visit www.icispricing.com.

By: Staff Reporter
+44 20 8652 3214

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