Phil Flynn: Crude Oil is Having a Hard Time Following Through

Oil is having a hard time following through on its bullish momentum especially which is particularly disappointing to the bulls especially after China’s red hot GDP numbers. Strong growth numbers out of China seemed to not inspire the type of buying frenzy that one might imagine. Mixed data out of the US and the fact that oil should be getting close to a seasonal peak perhaps is weighing down the marketplace. China did take some steps t o try to slow their economy down from overheating by attacking surging real estate prices and that may be another reason why China’s surging prosperity didn’t trickle down to the oil market. The Financial Times reported that the Chinese State Council said that anyone buying a second home in China would need to put up a 50 per cent deposit up front. That is up from 40 per cent previously. First time homebuyers in China buying homes s bigger than 90 square meters have to put up 30 per cent. The Financial Times says that China instead of raising rates like Australia and India, China has targeted a 22 per cent reduction in new loans from a record $1,400bn last year and twice asked lenders to set aside more cash as reserves.

The last time China's growth accelerated to more than 11 per cent, in the first quarter of 2006, the central bank raised rates within a month. Still the Times said that China's cabinet signaled caution in ending crisis policies, saying first-quarter economic growth was largely driven by stimulus policies and a comparison with low levels in 2009. I think the bulls would like to end the week with the front month closing over $85 to confirm their bullish aspirations which is getting harder to do as we are seeing a lot of rolls continuing from the May into the June and other contract. June has more open interest now yet with record volume and a lot of rocking and rolling to do we could see the contango continue to widen.

The other factor holding oil back is the dollar. The dollar seems to be gaining strength on the ongoing on again off again Greek worries. Oh no. It’s not resolved yet? The Financial Times reported that “Greece capitulated to market pressure yesterday and took an important step towards a bailout from its Eurozone partners and the International Monetary Fund as it formally sought "consultations" over a €30bn-plus loan package to stave off default.” With uncertainty surrounding the latest bailout once again going into the weekend traders may seek the safe haven of the dollar so they can sit back and enjoy their recent stock market profits. Yes that soaring stock market has also provided support. Yet the run while impressive may face some profit taking especially after Google missed the whisper number

Natural Gas’s little foray above $400 ended in an ignominious fashion. The EIA reported that wworking gas in storage was 1,756 Bcf according to EIA estimates. This represents a net increase of 87 Bcf from the previous week and a whopping 16.3 per cent above the five year average. So much for that preseason hurricane premium. Of course ample supplies o cheap natural gas is the unsung hero and a part of the incredible manufacturing come back. Think of the natural gas price as an economic stimulus package that the taxpayer does not have to pay for. We still feel the best way to trade energies and other commodities at this point is to trade the ranges.

Phil can be reached at pflynn@pfgbest.com And make sure to watch him on the Fox Business Network broadcasting all weekend long!

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Crude Oil Daily Technical Outlook For Friday

Crude oil's recovery was limited below 87.09 resistance and drops sharply since then. With 4 hours MACD crossed below signal line, intraday bias is turned neutral again. Note that consolidation from 87.09 is still in progress and deeper fall to 82.51 or below could be seen. Nevertheless, strong support is expected at 61.8% retracement of 78.56 to 87.09 at 81.82 to conclude the correction and bring rally resumption. Break of 87.09 will target 90 psychological level next.

In the bigger picture, medium term rise from 33.2 is still in progress and could extend further higher. Nevertheless, there is no change in the view that it's the second wave of the whole correction that started in 2008 at 147.27. Hence, we'd continue to expect strong resistance near to 50% retracement of 147.27 to 33.2 at 90.24 to bring reversal. On the downside, below 78.56 support will be the first signal of topping and will turn focus back to 69.50 support for confirmation.....Nymex Crude Oil Continuous Contract 4 Hours Chart.

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Dow and S&P Update Video....Can We Keep Going Higher Forever?

We owe trillions of dollars, but Crude oil is at $86 a barrel, the DOW, S&P, and NASDAQ are making new highs almost everyday and unemployment is officially at 9.7%.

Everything is great! Happy days are here again... Right?

So is the DOW, S&P, and NASDAQ all going to keep going higher forever? Or are the teachings of a dead mathematician going to reverse this juggernaut of a market?

In our new video we show you exactly what we mean and how the these indices could be very close to a very important tipping point.

This is without a doubt, one of the most important videos we have ever made and if you are concerned about your financial future, you don't want to miss it.

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Where is Crude Oil Headed on Friday?

CNBC's Sharon Epperson discusses the day's activity in the commodities markets, and looks ahead to where oil is likely headed tomorrow.




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Crude Closes Lower, Bulls Still Maintain The Advantage

Crude oil closed down $0.34 at $85.50 a barrel today. Prices closed nearer the session low today and saw mild profit taking. Crude oil bulls still have the solid overall near term technical advantage. The next upside price objective for the bulls is producing a close above solid technical resistance at the April high of $87.09 a barrel.

Natural gas closed down 19.2 cents at $4.007 today. Prices closed near the session low today and were pressured by a bearish weekly natural gas storage report. Bears have the solid near term technical advantage. The next upside price objective for the bulls is closing prices above solid technical resistance at last week's high of $4.334.

Gold futures closed up $0.50 at $1,160.10 today. Prices closed near the session high today and were supported by speculative bargain hunting buying after prices were under selling pressure early on. A stronger U.S. dollar index did limit gains in gold, however. Bulls still have the solid near term technical advantage. A nine week old uptrend line is in place on the daily bar chart.

The U.S. dollar index closed up 28 points at 80.58 today. Prices closed near mid-range today. While no serious chart damage has occurred recently the bulls have faded and need to show more power soon. The bulls still have the overall near term technical advantage.


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Phil Flynn: Forget those Fed Fund Futures, Oil is the key!

Ben Bernanke spoke yesterday and the oil market listened. Of course listening to Ben Bernanke and his comment about the price of oil made one wonder whether or not Big Ben gave traders the green light to buy oil. Among other things that the Fed Chairman said about the economy was that the current price of oil was not a threat to the economy. "At this point oil prices are not a serious threat to the recovery," Bernanke told a Congressional Committee. "Clearly if it moves a lot it would be a negative, so we have to watch it."

Of course they have to watch it. If oil prices spin out of control it could endanger an economic recovery which begs the question, at what point does Bernanke see oil prices as a threat? Obviously that is a difficult question as the price of oil can move higher comfortably as long as it accompanies strong economic growth. With Mr. Bernanke basking in the light of some strong data and earnings, it seems the oil price right now is a concern but not a major one. My guess is that Mr. Bernanke’s point of pain on oil is $90 for the rest of the year. That means that instead of watching Fed fund futures for an estimate of when interest rates will raise, perhaps we'd do better to watch the crude oil curve.

If we see oil go solidly above $90 a barrel then perhaps that would be the month we would expect a rate increase. Which means according to the oil market price with the December contract trading currently at 8990, there is an approximate 98 percent chance the Fed will raise rates in December and with January at 9006 over a 100% chance they will increase early next year? If the front month oil contract goes solidly over $90, the pressure on the Fed would be enormous to try to do something despite the subdued core inflation rate.

China is hot, hot, hot. So hot that it's getting too hot for the Chinese government to handle? China's GDP came in at a three year high blistering rate of 11.9% raising fear this morning that China is going to have to do something dramatic to try to slow things down. At the same time Chinese consumer prices climbed 2.4 percent in March which was less than expected. Yet at the same time this is a number that is fraught with danger for the future of the Chinese government. Those fears about China may be one reason the oil market seems less than impressed with China’s strong GDP or perhaps the market feels that yesterday move up in oil basically priced strong China growth in.

How much of the Iranian threat is priced in. Some traders took note of the story about Iran’s capability to shutdown the critical oil export choke point the Straits of Hormuz. Bloomberg News reported, “Iran’s build-up of its defenses gives it the capability to block a major Persian Gulf oil- transit route and project military strength on its territory, the U.S. Defense Department’s intelligence director said. “It does have the ability to restrict access to the Straits of Hormuz with its naval forces temporarily and threaten U.S. forces with missiles,” U.S. Army Lieutenant General Ronald Burgess, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. Iran has taken steps to strengthen its military defenses and cultivate allied terrorist groups targeting the U.S. and Israel, Burgess told the committee. “Iran can conduct limited offensive operations with its strategic ballistic missile program and naval forces,” Burgess said.

Iran has threatened to block the Straits of Hormuz before. The EIA says that narrow Straits of Hormuz between Iran and Oman (21 miles width at its widest point) is the most important choke point for oil shipments from the Persian Gulf. Roughly 17 million barrels per day, more than 20% of the world’s total oil supply, transit this route. If the Straits of Hormuz were blocked, only a small share of the oil could be transported along alternative routes. The most viable is a 745-mile long east-west pipeline through Saudi Arabia to the Red Sea. The possibility that Iran might try to close these straits would cause the mother of all oil spikes but at the same time it would also be the end of the Iranian regime as we know it. The global outrage from such a move would be met with swift and lethal resistance.

Oil also got a boost yesterday on the EIA which showed a surprisingly large crude draw on the East Coast. I suspect that that number will be adjusted somewhat next week to the upside but that does not help us this week. The EIA said that crude oil inventories decreased by 2.2 million barrels from the previous week. At 354.0 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are above the upper limit of the average range for this time of year. Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 1.1 million barrels last week, and are above the upper limit of the average range.

Phil Flynn can be reached at pflynn@pfgbest.com. And make sure to watch him every day on the Fox Business Network!

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Crude Oil Trades Little Changed Near $86 on Stronger Dollar, Growth in China

Crude oil fluctuated around $86 a barrel as economic growth in China accelerated and a stronger dollar dampened the investment appeal of commodities. Oil traded between $85.32 and $86.27 today as the economy in China, the second largest oil user, expanded by 11.9 percent in the first quarter. The dollar snapped a five day losing streak against the euro, and U.S. oil supplies fell for the first time in 11 weeks in a government report yesterday.

“The market’s sitting on top of what looks like very impressive data coming out of China,” said Bill O’Grady, chief market strategist at Confluence Investment Management in St. Louis. “You’ve got the dollar pretty strong this morning, yet oil prices are not getting clobbered, which is not something we would have seen three or four months ago.” Crude oil for May delivery rose 15 cents to $85.99 a barrel at 9:53 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil has climbed 75 percent in the past year.

China’s growth in gross domestic product was higher than the median 11.7 percent estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of 24 economists. The U.S. is the largest energy consuming country. Chinese refiners processed 34.56 million metric tons of crude in March, 18 percent more than the same month last year, according to China Mainland Marketing Research Co., which compiles data for the government. That’s the highest level after volume reached 34.6 million tons in December.

“Today’s sentiment still seems bullish with strong economic statistics from China,” said Andy Sommer, an analyst at EGL AG in Dietikon, Switzerland. The dollar advanced 0.7 percent against the euro to $1.3553 from $1.3653 yesterday in New York.

U.S. Supplies
U.S. crude oil inventories dropped 2.2 million barrels, or 0.6 percent, last week to 354 million barrels, the Energy Department reported yesterday. It was the first decline since the week ended Jan. 22. Supplies were 5.1 percent above the five year average, down from 7.1 percent the week before. Manufacturing production in the U.S. accelerated in March as factories spearheaded the recovery from the worst recession since the 1930s.

Output at factories climbed 0.9 percent after a 0.2 gain in February that was revised from a previously estimated decline, Federal Reserve figures showed today. Warmer weather caused utility use to drop by the most in four years, limiting the overall gain in industrial production to 0.1 percent, less than anticipated. The number of Americans filing claims for jobless benefits unexpectedly increased last week, indicating the improvement in the labor market will take time to unfold.

U.S. Jobs
Initial jobless applications increased by 24,000 to 484,000 in the week ended April 10, the highest level since Feb. 20, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. A Labor Department spokesman said the rise in claims was due more to administrative factors reflecting volatility around Easter than economic reasons.

Brent crude oil for May, which expires today, rose $1.30, or 1.5 percent, to $87.45 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. Earlier, it touched $87.58, the highest level since October 2008. The more actively traded June contract gained 86 cents, or 1 percent, to $87.76 a barrel.

Reporter Margot Habiby can be contacted at mhabiby@bloomberg.net.


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Mid-Week Gold & Oil Trading Report

From guest analyst Chris Vermeulen....

In my last report I showed some cycles for the price of gold and how they were starting to roll over which would in turn put some selling pressure on both gold and silver this week.

Last Monday we saw gold and silver open higher but both were met with selling for the entire trading session. Since then gold and silver have been drifting higher on light volume with some occasional waves of selling on higher volume. It looks as though gold and silver have started a 5-14 day pause or pullback.

GLD – Gold Exchange Traded Fund

You can see from the chart below that the price of GLD looks to have bottomed after completing several typical price patterns from the breakdown we saw in December. The recent 4 months have provided a solid looking chart which should help gold take another run at the $1500 mark in the coming months.



USO Oil Fund



Crude Oil Futures – 120 minute chart of April 14, 2010

As the saying goes, buy on rumor (expectations) sell on the news. Well the price of oil moved up in the early morning anticipating the news (inventory numbers) at 10:30am ET would be in line with estimates. Then we saw profit taking started 2 hours before the number came out which is normal to see. But traders forecasted 1.4 million barrels as the number but the number came out at -2.2 million which was a big surprise for everyone. This sent oil sharply higher providing traders who caught the breaking news with an easy money trade. This type of action does not happen often so it’s a great little bonus for day traders.



Mid-Week Trading Conclusion:

In short, metals have had a nice run recently and the charts are pointing to a short breather before the next upward thrust.

Oil is holding up strong on the daily chart and with today’s extra boost in price, its looking like it may want to start a new leg higher if the momentum carries over for a few more days.

We saw the major indexes surge higher on rising volume indicating buyers are in a panic to buy in fear of missing more gains. There really is no reason to be buying at these prices other than trading off emotions in fear of missing more upside. The problem for these traders is that money is made by those who buy dips in the bull markets. Buying over extended rallies is a dangerous game, especially with the market as overbought as this one. The trend is our friend and if we do get a 1-2 day pullback in stocks we could take small position to buy on a dip.

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Crude Oil Daily Technical Outlook For Thursday Morning

Crude oil retreats after hitting as high as 86.39 but at this point, intraday bias remains cautiously on the upside for 87.09 resistance. As noted before, choppy correction from 87.09 has possibly completed at 82.51 already. Break of 87.09 will confirm rally resumption for 90 psychological level next. On the downside, however, below 84.20 minor support will argue that correction from 87.09 is still in progress and flip intraday bias back to the downside for another test on 82.51. Though, strong support should be seen from 61.8% retracement of 78.56 to 87.09 at 81.82 to conclude the correction and bring rally resumption.

In the bigger picture, medium term rise from 33.2 is still in progress and could extend further higher. Nevertheless, there is no change in the view that it's the second wave of the whole correction that started in 2008 at 147.27. Hence, we'd continue to expect strong resistance near to 50% retracement of 147.27 to 33.2 at 90.24 to bring reversal. On the downside, below 78.56 support will be the first signal of topping and will turn focus back to 69.50 support for confirmation.....
Nymex Crude Oil Continuous Contract 4 Hours Chart.




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Crude Oil Extends Gains on Unexpected Decline in U.S. Supply, Increase in Demand

Crude Oil climbed for a second day in New York after a U.S. government report showed an unexpected drop in supplies as gasoline demand increased the most in five years.
Oil rose 2.1 percent yesterday as crude stockpiles dropped 2.2 million barrels last week, the Energy Department said, the first decline in 11 weeks. Supplies were forecast to climb 1.3 million barrels, based on analyst estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. Gasoline use rose 1.3 percent in the four weeks ended April 9, the biggest gain since August 2004.

“The draw in crude was unexpected by the market and is a bit of a release because we have had so many weeks of builds, along with stronger imports into the U.S.,” said Ben Westmore, a minerals and energy economist at National Australia Bank Ltd. in Melbourne. “Demand for gasoline was also up.” Crude oil for May delivery gained as much as 37 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $86.21 a barrel and was at $86.12 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 9:25 a.m. Singapore time. Yesterday, the contract gained $1.79 to settle at $85.84, ending a five day decline.

U.S. gasoline consumption climbed 119,000 barrels in the four weeks ended April 9 to 9.14 million barrels a day, the Energy Department said. That’s the highest level since October. The dollar traded at $1.3661 per euro from $1.3653 yesterday. A weaker dollar makes commodities more attractive as an alternative investment.
....Read the entire article.


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