WTI Crude oil for most active February expiry at the NYMEX finished on a weaker note in the international markets on Tuesday while most global markets remained shut on Wednesday on account of New Year. At the closing time, NYMEX February expiry oil finished 0.9% lower at $98.40 per barrel. In the Indian context, we had normal trading yesterday wherein movement remained constringed due to lack of triggers. By the end of trade, we saw crude oil gained by 0.2% to Rs 6135 per barrel at MCX.
In the fresh cues today morning, Crude at electronic trading at the NYMEX was hovering moderately in the green tracking positive cues from the weekly inventory number by the API. Oil prices added nearly 0.2% during the early Asian trade after the American Petroleum Institute (API) late night yesterday (IST) said US oil stocks fell over 5.67 million barrels, higher than market’s expectations. Tomorrow evening, we have the more important similar number from US Department of Energy wherein the agency is likely to show, crude stocks fell by nearly 2.8 million barrels last week.
As per the Bloomberg Survey, the US government agency might show gasoline stockpiles rose by 1.38 million barrels whereas the distillate stocks are seen rising by 750,000 barrels. However, after looking at the headline API number, we might see a moderately better reading as against markets expectations.
In the other global markets cues today morning, we are witnessing amazing movement during the first trading session of the year globally and particularly in Bullion. For crude as also said above, prices have advanced a tad supported by lower inventories released by API. Today we have most of the economic data pertaining to manufacturing activities which could have some impact on oil movement globally. We have the domestic manufacturing number at 10:30 APM IST while Germany, Euro-zone and UK PMI manufacturing data are expected at 2:30 to 3:00 PM IST. We believe these data may show slight change in numbers. Lastly, from global frontier, euro currency is trading steady at $1.3766 while the US dollar index is at 80.12 mostly stable. Asian equities are mostly trading weak this morning while local index Nifty is trading at 6344 up by 0.67%.