For those who feel the crude oil market has grown a bit stale of late, a full slate of news due to hit the wires Wednesday should satisfy desire for more volatility.
First off, the OPEC meeting in Abu Dhabi should keep the market on its toes during Singapore and early London trading hours. While a number of oil ministers have downplayed the need for OPEC to hike output, the only one who really counts -- the Saudi Arabian minister -- has said that all options are open.
It has been fairly typical for ministers to jawbone ahead of the meeting, and the official announcement. But since the Saudis have most of the spare capacity, an output hike would pretty much mean a Saudi Arabia production hike.
Ahead of the meeting, freight rates for Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) spiked, perhaps indicating a rise in exports from the Arab Gulf region, or expectation of a jump in exports if OPEC hikes.
Right after OPEC announces its decision, at 10:30 am EST (1530 GMT), the Energy Information Administration and American Petroleum Institute release their weekly US oil inventory reports, which are usually good for eliciting a knee-jerk price movement from the NYMEX on the calmest of days.
Analysts surveyed by Platts are looking for a 1.7 million barrel draw from crude stocks, a 950,000 barrel build in gasoline inventories, no change in distillate and for the refinery utilization rate to hold steady at 89.4%.
Leave a comment