U.S. WTI May crude oil futures electronic disk closed Monday (April 1) up $1.63, or 2.71%, to $61.77 a barrel. Oil prices rose more than 2% on Monday to a year-high of $69 a barrel, after positive signs from the global economy and tightening crude oil supply helped U.S. oil and oil to record their best first quarter performance in nearly a decade.
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Meanwhile, ICE Brent crude oil futures closed up $1.64, or 2.43%, at $69.22 a barrel in May.
Sino-US economic data are improving to alleviate market worries about economic prospects
John Kilduff, a partner of Again Capital Management, a hedge fund, said the combination of good manufacturing purchasing managers’indices (PMI) in the United States and China, the world’s two largest economies, boosted oil prices. A series of weak economic data brought about by the greater resistance to ease today, so the bullish theme has not been suppressed.
Stock markets in the United States rose after strong manufacturing data from the United States and China eased fears of a slowdown in global economic growth.
In March, China’s manufacturing activity unexpectedly grew for the first time in four months. U.S. manufacturing data in March were also better than expected, leaving investors unhappy with the weak February retail sales data.
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Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch and Associates, said the bull market in the energy market had entered its fourth month and seemed able to continue.
OPEC production cuts and Venezuelan export declines support oil prices
The survey showed that OPEC’s oil supply fell to a four-year low in March as Saudi Arabia, the largest exporter, overfulfilled its output reduction agreement, while Venezuela’s oil production declined further due to sanctions and power outages.
A monthly survey released on Friday showed that analysts were cautiously optimistic about the oil market, raising their forecast for the average price of oil in 2019 to $67.12 for the first time in five months.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said on Friday that hedge funds and fund managers’bullish bets on U.S. crude oil rose to their highest level in more than five months.
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) data show that in the week ending March 26, Brent crude oil speculators’net long positions increased by 13,429 to 322,035, the highest level since the end of October last year.
Baker Hughes, an energy services company, said U.S. energy companies last week lowered the number of oil rigs to the lowest level in nearly a year, with the largest decline in the first quarter of this year for three years.
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