Crude prices ended lower at Nymex on Tuesday, 08 July 2014. The expected and long-delayed return of two Libyan oil ports maintained pressure on oil prices. Oil futures traded mostly lower with Libya expected to soon ramp up oil exports and no sign of production disruptions in Iraq.
August crude fell 18 cents, or 0.2%, to $103.35 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The U.S. market awaits the usual weekly reports on petroleum supplies early Wednesday from the Energy Information Administration. Market is looking for a decline of 3 million barrels in crude supplies, a fall of 1 million barrels in gasoline stockpiles and an increase of 1.2 million barrels for distillates, which include heating oil.
It has been a quieter trading affair in many markets early this week, amid a lack of major world economic news released so far. The focal point for U.S. traders this week is the FOMC meeting minutes from the Federal Reserve that are due out on Wednesday afternoon.
Traders and investors are keeping a closer eye on the Middle East, as Israel has launched a military offensive on the Gaza strip. The Hamas group has retaliated with its own rocket launches into Israel.
Economic data at Wall Street was limited to the Jobs Openings and Labor Turnover Survey and the Consumer Credit report. The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey for May indicated job openings increased to 4.635 million from 4.464 million consumer credit increased by $19.60 billion in May after increasing a downwardly revised $26.10 billion (from $21.80 billion) in April. The consensus expected consumer credit to increase by $16.10 billion.
On Nymex, petroleum products traded lower as well, with August gasoline at $2.98 a gallon, down a penny and August heating oil down nearly 2 cents at $2.90 a gallon.
Natural-gas futures edged lower for a second straight session on Tuesday, with prices holding ground at their lowest level since January as traders bet on continued increases in U.S. supplies. August natural gas fell nearly 7 cents, or 1.6%, to $4.16 per million British thermal units.
