EVENING SNAPSHOT - Americas Markets Summary

15 July 2010 23:44  [Source: ICIS news]

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

CRUDE: Aug WTI: $76.62/bbl, down 42 cents; Aug Brent: $76.19/bbl, down 58 cents
NYMEX crude futures (WTI) surged towards $76.90/bbl in after-market electronic trading, tracking a late rally in the stock market. Wall Street investors engaged in late bottom picking, with shares of BP and Goldman Sachs leading the way.

NATURAL GAS: $4.586/MMBtu, up 28.0 cents
The August natural gas futures contract rebounded by nearly 7% from Wednesday's low after the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed a less-than-expected build in storage last week. Upward support also came from high temperatures forecast for the US midwest and northeast in coming weeks.

RBOB: $2.0607/gal, down 0.58 cents
Reformulated gasoline blendstock for oxygenate blending (RBOB) prices ended about a half-cent lower as troubling economic data wiped clean any optimism in the market. The Federal Reserve minutes for the 22-23 June meeting offered the final down note to the day, which said “as a result of the change in financial conditions, most participants revised down slightly their outlook for economic growth.” Some analysts attributed the drop in prices to profit-taking as traders found that previous economic optimism was misguided.

BENZENE: down at $2.62-2.65/gal
A July benzene deal was heard at $2.62/gal on the USG (US Gulf) spot market. The transaction was within the day's bid/offer band but narrowed the range with higher bids. A spread trade was also heard with one party buying July for August and selling August for September.

ETHYLENE: up at 30.50-31.50 cents/lb
US ethylene for July traded higher on Thursday at 31.50 cents/lb, following news of a cracker outage in Texas.

PROPYLENE: steady at 43.00-44.00 cents/lb
US refinery-grade propylene (RGP) prices were assessed steady on Thursday. RGP for July was last heard traded at 44.00 cents/lb.

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

By: Staff Reporter
+44 20 8652 3214

For the latest chemical news, data and analysis that directly impacts your business sign up for a free trial to ICIS news - the breaking online news service for the global chemical industry.

Get the facts and analysis behind the headlines from our market leading weekly magazine: sign up to a free trial to ICIS Chemical Business.

Printer Friendly