Most analysts accepted the jobless numbers published by the Labor Department on face value that there wer 243,000 new jobs in January and a commensurate drop in unemployment to 8.3% making crude rise 1.7% over yesterday's close. Also helping the climbing price was the dollar's drop during the day. However, the unemployment news is really mixed because total jobs available dropped significantly and the unemployment rate is not really falling because of more jobs but because fewer of the jobless are counted.
As a cautionary note, the elephant in the room is the precipitous drop in demand to pre-21st century figures (supporting our hypothesis that the economy is not growing and there are fewer working people out there). The economy cannot be kicking on all eight cylinders if fuel demand is falling. Europe is not enjoying the big inventories in Cushing and the premium between NYMEX and Brent has grown $4.65 this past week. Another indicator that the markets have not fully bought into the all's well jobless report is the growing contango movement where prices are falling over time.
This week, WTI-$1.72, $97.84; Brent+$2.93, $114.39; RBOB-1.24¢, $2.9144; HO+4.4¢, $3.1144.
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