Credit Suisse Analyst is Bullish on Two Engineering and Construction Firms

A Credit Suisse analyst is bullish on two engineering and construction companies, saying the prospects for new oil and natural gas contract awards are improving.

Analyst Jamie Cook called shares of Fluor Corp. and Foster Wheeler AG "top picks" in a note to investors on Wednesday. The companies build infrastructure to ship natural gas, and their shares have been depressed because natural gas prices have been relatively low. Natural gas prices are trading around $4 per 1,000 cubic feet on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That's higher than the same time last year but only about half of what natural gas traded for in 2008.

Cook said prospects for new contract awards and additional backlog for oil and natural gas work "should ramp up in 2011," citing private industry sources. "Areas of optimism include Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Australia, Brazil, India, China and Iraq, but longer term," Cook said. Cook maintained an "Outperform" rating on Fluor with a $56 price target. He maintained the same rating on Foster Wheeler with a price target of $31. Shares of Fluor fell 9 cents to $48.85 in morning trading. Shares of Foster Wheeler fell 18 cents to $24.22.

From INO.Com/AP

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Crude Oil Technical Outlook For Wednesday Morning

Crude oil was lower overnight as it consolidates some of the rally off August's low. Stochastics and the RSI are overbought and are turning neutral warning bulls to use caution as a short term top might be in or is near.

Closes below the 20 day moving average crossing at 74.47 would confirm that a short term top has been posted. If October extends the rally off August's low, the 62% retracement level of the decline off August's high crossing at 78.58 is the next upside target.

First resistance is Monday's high crossing at 77.50
Second resistance is the 62% retracement level off August's high crossing at 78.58

Crude oil pivot point for Wednesday morning is 77.00

First support is the 10 day moving average crossing at 75.27
Second support is the 20 day moving average crossing at 74.47

The "Super Cycle" in Gold and How It Will Affect Your Pocketbook in 2010

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Commodity Corner: Pipeline Outage Continues, But Oil Ends Lower

October oil futures edged lower Tuesday despite fears of a prolonged shutdown of a key Enbridge pipeline that carries crude oil from Canada to the U.S.

Crude prices settled at $76.80 a barrel, a 39 cent decrease from the previous day's trading session. The continued shutdown of Line 6A of Enbridge's Lakehead System near Chicago is providing support for oil prices. Line 6A, which can carry up to 670,000 barrels a day from Canada to the upper Midwest, will not be allowed to restart until U.S. government regulators deem it safe. Already causing a sharp increase in gas prices across the region, investors fear the supply disruption could begin to drain U.S. oil inventories.

Additionally, sluggish economic growth in Germany applied downward pressure to crude futures. A survey revealed lower than expected German investor sentiment, and industrial production in the euro area was flat in July, according to EU's statistics office. Analysts suggest that despite China's booming economy, mixed economic conditions in the U.S. and Europe have kept price increases in check.

The intraday range for October crude was $76.21 to $77.99 a barrel.

Meanwhile, natural gas for October delivery rose 2.8 cents Tuesday to settle at $3.97 per thousand cubic feet. The third price increase in as many trading days supports speculation that the days of lower natural gas futures may have passed for the season. However, some analysts are being cautious and are not declaring a seasonal rally yet. Gas prices were threatened earlier Tuesday on forecasts of storm clusters forming in the Gulf of Mexico, but no immediate storm threats have been seen, steering clear of production outages. Natural gas
fluctuated between $3.84 and $4.02 Tuesday.

RBOB gasoline settled lower at $1.97 a gallon, peaking at $2.00 and bottoming out at $1.96.

From the staff at Rigzone

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Where is Crude Oil and Gold Headed on Wednesday?

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




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Stock Market and Commodities Summary For Tuesday Sept. 14th

The U.S. stock indexes closed mixed today. Some dour economic data out of Europe was offset by slightly better than expected U.S. retail sales data today. Bulls have gained some upside near term technical momentum recently as the bulls have "climbed a wall of worry." While the months of Sept. and Oct. have been historically unkind to the stock market bulls, the indexes are starting out the month of September in good shape. The record high in gold today and the rebounding U.S. Treasury markets this week are a warning signal to the stock index bulls that more money may soon be flowing into safe haven assets and away from the stock market.

Crude oil closed down $0.41 at $76.78 a barrel today. Prices closed near mid range today and saw a corrective pullback from recent gains and were also pressured by some weak economic data coming out of Germany. Bulls still have the slight near term technical advantage. The next near term upside price objective for the bulls is producing a close above solid technical resistance at $80.00 a barrel.

Natural gas closed up 1.7 cents at $3.955 today. Prices closed nearer the session high today and hit another fresh three week high on short covering in a bear market. The bears still have the overall near term technical advantage. A three month old downtrend is still in place on the daily bar chart.

Gold futures closed up $24.90 at $1,272.00 today. Prices closed near the session high today and soared to a fresh contract and all time record high. A sharply lower U.S. dollar and some fresh safe haven investment demand boosted gold higher today. A dour economic report coming out of Germany today spooked the markets in Europe, and that added to buying interest in gold. Now, look for price volatility in the gold market to heat up in the near term, with bigger daily price movements likely, both on the upside and on the downside. Gold bulls still have the strong overall near term and longer term technical advantage.

The U.S. dollar index closed down 72 points at 81.46 today. Prices closed near the session low again today and hit another fresh four week low. Bears have the near term technical advantage and gained more downside momentum today. Bulls' next upside price objective is to close prices above solid technical resistance at last week's high of 83.31.


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Phil Flynn: OPEC Divisions

In a world awash in crude supply OPEC has had it pretty darn good. The cartel that always puts its own interests first seems to be getting a little testy with each other as the competition for a declining market share may be causing some tension. This behind the scene squabbling may have come out in the open when Reuters News and the Globe and Mail reported that Saudi Aramco, the Saudi State oil company chief executive Khalid al-Falih, declared that global oil demand has bottomed and the state owned giant stands ready to increase production when more is needed.

The Globe and Mail quoted him as saying, "We believe that the market has bottomed in terms of demand and has already begun picking up," he said. "And Saudi Aramco will be responding to the economic recovery that has ensued with appropriate adjustments. But those will be determined collectively and not singly, either by the company or by the kingdom." Of course when the Saudis speak the market listens yet at the same time are they sending a message to other members of the cartel that the kingdom is tired of holding back on production while others profit by taking their market share. Early this morning the OPEC Secretary said in so many words.....Read the entire article.

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Crude Oil Retreats Along With Equities as Economic Data Disappoints

From Oil N Gold Insights.....

Crude oil pulled back in concert with stock markets. Political environment in Japan and economic releases in the UK and the Eurozone took center stage in driving market sentiment. Currently trading at 76.7, the front month WTI contract retreated for the first time in 3 days after soaring to a 1 month high of 78.04 yesterday. Weakness in USD sent precious metals higher. Gold climbed to as high as 1256.9 while silver continued trading above 20. For PGMs, both platinum and palladium strengthened for a second day to 5 week high of 1570 and 4 month high of 541 respectively.

In Japan, Prime Minister Naoto Kan's victory as the head of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) pushed the yen to a 15 year high against the dollar. Kan has been viewed as more tolerant to yen's appreciation than another PM candidate Ichiro Ozawa.

In the Eurozone, ZEW's index signaled investors lost confidence on Eurozone's economy. The 'economic sentiment' index for the 16-nation region plummeted to 4.4 in September from 15.8 in August. The market had anticipated a milder drop to 14.5. The reading specifically for Germany slumped to -4.3 in August from 14 a month ago. In the UK, headline CPI surprisingly rose to +3.1% y/y in August. Inflation has been overshooting BOE's target of +3% for 6 straight months, increasing the difficulties for the central bank to implement measures to stimulate growth.

Gold/silver ratio has dropped to 62.2 yesterday from 64.4 earlier in the month and above 70 earlier this year, indicating silver's outperformance. However, we have become more cautious of a correction in silver price from current price level. In fact, silver is the only precious metal under our coverage that is oversupplied due to rising mine production.

PGM prices rallied as a labor strike at the South African PGM producer Northam Platinum entered a second week. According to the company, about 80% of the mine's 6 800 workers were on the strike.

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Short Term Buy Signal on Gold!

GOLD ALERT: The MarketClub Daily “Trade Triangle” signaled an enter long gold position today for short term traders at $1,250.35. Spot gold is currently trading at $1,265.28. Intermediate and long term traders remain long gold.

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Crude Oil Is Little Changed as Enbridge Works on Pipeline

Crude oil was little changed as Enbridge Energy Partners LP prepared to weld a new section to a pipeline that was shut last week and U.S. retail sales climbed for a second month. Oil dropped as much as 0.9 percent after work began on Enbridge’s Line 6A, which transports 670,000 barrels a day of Canadian crude to refineries in the central U.S. Prices rebounded from the day’s lows after the Commerce Department reported that purchases increased 0.4 percent following a 0.3 percent gain in July that was smaller than previously estimated.

“We are all waiting to see what happens with the Enbridge pipeline,” said Carl Larry, president of Oil Outlooks and Opinions LLC in Houston. “Any news that comes out will have the ability to move the market.” Crude oil for October delivery fell 9 cents to $77.10 a barrel at 9:11 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures settled at $77.19 yesterday, the highest level since Aug. 11.

Brent crude oil for October settlement, which expires tomorrow, slipped 5 cents to $78.98 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London. The more actively traded November contract dropped 13 cents to $78.94. Canada is the largest exporter of crude to the U.S., sending 2.2 million barrels a day in June, according to the Energy Department. Refiners in the region may obtain supplies from Cushing, Oklahoma, the Midwest oil-storage hub, driving up futures traded in New York.

From Bloomberg News



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Crude Oil Support, Resistance and Pivot Point Numbers For Tuesday Morning

Crude oil was lower overnight as it consolidates some of the rally off August's low. Stochastics and the RSI remain bullish signaling that sideways to higher prices are possible near term.

If October extends the rally off August's low, the 62% retracement level of the decline off August's high crossing at 78.58 is the next upside target. Closes below the 20 day moving average crossing at 74.48 would confirm that a short term top has been posted.

First resistance is Monday's high crossing at 77.50
Second resistance is the 62% retracement level off August's high crossing at 78.58

Crude oil pivot point for Tuesday morning is 77.20

First support is the 20 day moving average crossing at 74.48
Second support is the reaction low crossing at 72.63



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