NYMEX February crude soared Wednesday toward the market’s close, settling $2.59/b higher, after short-covering pushed prices $2/b higher in the last 30 minutes of trading.
ICE February Brent settled up $2.10 at $48.69/b.
In NYMEX refined products, February RBOB rose in tandem with NYMEX crude, closing 8.22 cents higher at $1.3507/gal. Prompt ULSD settled up 2.22 cents at $1.6522/gal.
“It was short-covering madness,” said Price Futures Group analyst Phil Flynn, noting the NYMEX February options expired Wednesday.
“A lot of people were hoping for a sell-off until the last few minutes, but it didn’t come,” he said.
NYMEX February crude reached an intraday low as $45.50/b. The futures contract had been stable for most of the day, trading in positive territory, despite a report from the US Energy Information Administration showing a weekly build in crude, gasoline and distillate stocks.
US commercial crude stocks rose 5.4 million barrels, while gasoline and distillate combined stocks were up 6.1 million barrels, EIA said.
“Selling actually dried up when the EIA report came out, which says the market needs more bearish news than a weekly inventory report to drive us lower,” Tradition Energy senior analyst Gene McGillian said.
– Platts.com
