Friday, February 4, 2011

February 4, 2011

Crude traders saw through the spin of 9% unemployment and focused on the disappointing low number of 36,000 new jobs created in January as both WTI and Brent fell and so did both gasoline and distillate. The strong statements from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait earlier in the week about keeping crude and product supply open despite the unrest in Egypt has stabilized the market for fundamentals. The real unemployment rate which takes into account people so demoralized in their job searches that they have stopped looking is probably 17% and when fewer jobs than expected are created, analysts see falling demand in the future.

The dollar also finished higher, further pulling crude down. It has been an interesting week since prices unexpected fell after reaching a two year high on Monday.

For the week, WTI, -28¢, $89.03; Brent +49¢, $99.84; gasoline -2.26¢, $2.4353; distillate +2.56, $2.7166.

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