NOON SNAPSHOT - Americas Markets Summary

16 July 2010 18:00  [Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (ICIS news)--Here is Friday’s mid-day Americas oil and chemical market summary from ICIS.

CRUDE:  Aug WTI: $75.68/bbl, down 94 cents; Sep Brent: $75.03/bbl, down $1.06
NYMEX crude futures (WTI) tracked down losses in the stock market in response to disappointing economic data regarding consumer sentiment and consumer prices. Weakness in the equities markets continued to overshadow a strong euro versus the dollar. WTI bottomed out at $75.43/bbl before recouping some of the losses.

NATURAL GAS: $4.571/MMBtu, down 1.5 cents
Natural gas futures came down from Thursday's highs by mid-day. Thursday's storage and weather-driven strength extended into early Friday trading but diminished as the session progressed on pessimism over storage and crude oil losses.

RBOB: $2.0384/gal, down 2.23 cents
Reformulated gasoline blendstock for oxygenate blending (RBOB) prices moved slightly lower in reaction to the negative economic information released earlier this week. With US industrial production in the northeast slowing and China’s second-quarter gross domestic product growing at a slower-than-anticipated pace, investors questioned oil demand for the world’s two largest consumers. This pressured prices lower.

BENZENE: down at $2.60-2.65/gal
July benzene bids fell on losses in the energy complex and widened the range to $2.60-2.65/gal DDP (delivery, duty paid). Offers were unchanged as some upward sentiment came from higher prices in Europe. US Gulf August values were talked 1-2 cents above July.

ETHYLENE: up at 32.75-34.50 cents/lb
US ethylene bid/offers were up on Friday amid support from a cracker outage earlier in the week.

PROPYLENE: up at 43.00-45.50 cents/lb
US refinery-grade propylene (RGP) was bid at 43.00 cents/lb on Friday with offers at 45.50 cents/lb. RGP for July traded earlier this week 44.00 and 45.00 cents/lb.

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

By: Staff Reporter
+44 20 8652 3214

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