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Oil Falls for Second Day on Speculation Fuel Demand Will Drop
Oil fell for a second day in New York on speculation that fuel demand will decline as the U.S. summer peak consumption season ends and as crude and fuel inventories rise.
Today’s U.S. Labor Day holiday marks the end of the peak driving season. Traders are betting more on falling gasoline prices rather than rising for the first time in almost four years. U.S. crude inventories are about 5 percent higher than a year ago, while gasoline stockpiles are almost 10 percent more than last year.
“Macro data concerns are what are really going to drive things in the near term,” said Jason Schenker, president of Prestige Economics LLC in Austin, Texas. “The summer driving season is almost over.”
Crude for October delivery fell 64 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $73.96 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 11:22 a.m. in New York. There will be no floor trading on the Nymex today because of the U.S. holiday. All electronic trades will count as part of tomorrow’s session.
Refinery Maintenance
Crude oil may fall in the coming weeks as refineries in the U.S. and Europe start repairs after the end of the driving season, said Christophe Barret, a London-based oil analyst at Credit Agricole CIB. U.S. refinery utilization has dropped for three of the past four weeks, Department of Energy data shows.
“We are entering a period of weakness for crude oil as refineries go into maintenance,” Barret said today.
Net-short positions held by money managers in gasoline futures and options increased to 1,169 contracts the week ended Aug. 31, the first time speculators have been bearish since November 2006, according to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly report Sept. 3. Hedge funds cut bullish bets for four straight weeks.
U.S. gasoline demand slid 3.1 percent to a 12-week low in the seven days ended Aug. 27, MasterCard Inc. said in its weekly SpendingPulse report.
“People aren’t convinced that the renewed strength of the global economy is going to have any impact on oil,” said Alexander Ridgers, head of commodities at London-based CMC Markets, which handles more than $150 million a day in U.S. crude contracts. Inventories remain high, Ridgers said.
Aramco Raise Prices
Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest state-owned oil company, raised official selling prices for all crude grades to be shipped next month, according to a document issued yesterday.
Saudi Arabia was the fourth-largest crude exporter to the U.S. last year, slipping from second place in 2008, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Its customers are in Asia, the U.S., Northwest Europe and the Mediterranean.
Hedge-fund managers and other large speculators decreased their net-long position in New York crude futures in the week ended Aug. 31, according to data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Speculative long positions, or bets prices will rise, outnumbered short positions by 13,120 contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the Washington-based commission said in its Commitments of Traders report. Net-long positions fell by 14,203 contracts, or 52 percent, from a week earlier.
To contact the reporter on this story: Rachel Graham in London rgraham13@bloomberg.net; Aaron Clark in New York at aclark27@bloomberg.net.
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