Crude-oil futures ticked lower on Monday, 20 October 2014 at Nymex. Traders remained unsure whether prices for the commodity have hit bottom and oversupply concerns continued.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in November declined 4 cents, or less than 0.1%, to settle at $82.71 a barrel. The U.S. oil benchmark lost 3.6% last week and has been down for three consecutive weeks.
Oil markets are looking for any indication from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries for cuts in oil supply levels. So far, the prevailing notion is that OPEC might not move to cut output and boost prices. The cartel meets at the end of November in Vienna.
The market place was relatively calmer to start the new trading week, after a weekend that saw no significant events to further stoke trader and investor worries. Crude oil and the U.S. dollar index prices were near steady Monday. Crude oil is hovering near the two-year low scored last week, while the dollar index is not far below its recent four-year high. Traders and investors will continue to closely monitor these two key “outside markets,” which have a daily impact on many other markets.
In overnight news, reports said the central banks of Japan, China and the European Union have all began conducting some forms of monetary policy easing, albeit not aggressive moves. This comes at a time when the U.S. Federal Reserve is planning to wind down its own quantitative easing this month. There are growing notions the U.S. Fed may have to back-track on its quest to end its aggressive monetary policy stimulus. U.S. economic data released in the next few weeks will help determine which monetary policy path the Fed will take.
Among other energy products, gasoline for November fell 2.35 cents, or 1.5%, to settle at $2.2002 a gallon on Nymex, while November heating oil declined 1.20 cents, or 0.5%, to finish at $2.4856 a gallon also on Nymex. Both declines also snapped a two-session winning streak.
November natural gas fell 9.60 cents, or 2.6%, to end at $3.6700 per million British thermal units. Weather forecasts calling for warmer-than-normal temperatures for parts of the U.S. through early November have dented natural-gas futures prices. The commodity has been down for five straight sessions.