American Petroleum Institute or Impeachment Proceedings Behind Closed Doors
Good Morning!
At 6:00 A.M. MBA Mortgage Applications came out at 0.6% versus the previous -11.(% while the MBA 30-Year Mortgage Rate came out 4.05% versus the previous 4.02%. At 7:15 A.M we have the ADP Employment Change followed by GDP at 7:30 A.M., EIA Energy Stocks at 9:30 A.M. and the Interest Rate decision by the FED at 1:00 P.M. Let’s go back to the American Petroleum Institute (API), which advertises they will release their data at 3:30 P.M. sharp! It has not happened in some time and seems a select few get the data earlier, which could lead to algorithms to have a field day. I do not believe this is what the release of their numbers were intended for and further wrong data being fed by twitter or also other news streams can only cause market manipulation. This is a far cry from Free Markets For Free Men! It also creates Fake News and regardless of people’s good intentions or fraudulent activities the API should be held accountable for their business practices. On the Corn front, I saw snowflakes in Chicago this morning, however I could see snowflakes on the 4 of July. Seriously folks, this weather is going to further cripple harvest and the forward progress gained in this rough weather year as a whole. More snow and cold weather is forecasted and keep delays and make farmers feel like the movie Ground Hogs Day. In the overnight electronic session the December Corn is currently trading at 386 ¾, which is a ½ of a cent higher. The trading range has been 388 to 385 ¼.
On the Ethanol front, the argument of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) continues in this election cycle. Some sides say the EPA is abusing their power, yet they have been for decades under previous administrations. It is time to get an iron clad agreement and a reasonable agreement where both sides win. We are Americans! There were no trades posted in the overnight electronic session. The December Ethanol settled at 1.419. The market is currently showing 1 bid @ 1.411 and 1 offer @ 1.430 with Open Interest at 443 contracts.
On the Crude Oil front, the alleged API data the second time around showed Crude stocks down 1.7 mln barrels, Cushing builds of 1.2 mln barrels, Gasoline big draws of 4.7 mln barrels and Distillates had draws of 1.5 mln barrels. These numbers maybe off but they seem to make more sense. Since we have had a backup in Products for some time and we will for sure see it in the future. When refineries come out of Maintenance season they will be working overtime coming off the bench. In the overnight electronic session the December Crude Oil is currently trading at 5534, which is 20 points lower. The trading range has been 5573 to 5512. We anxiously wait for the EIA Energy Stocks.
On the Natural Gas front the market continues it’s upward weather trend with the December contract currently trading at 2.679, which is 4 cents higher. The trading range has been 2.680 to 2.616.
Have a Great Trading Day!