Written on: May 4, 2021
Tuesday, May 4, 2021
Crude futures looked set to strengthen for a fifth session in the last six, with gains of over 1.5 percent as of this writing in the overnight session. The gains came amid some strength in European shares but despite more mixed trade US stock market index futures and strength in the US dollar. Market participants looked ahead to US international trade in goods and Canadian merchandise trade data for further direction.
The Tokyo stock exchange and Shanghai exchanges are closed on May 3 and May 4. The Hang Seng strengthened 0.7% overnight. As of this writing, the FTSE 100 in the UK had gained 0.8% following encouraging manufacturing sector data. The final CIPS/Markit Manufacturing PMI saw a surprise upward revision from 60.7 in the flash reading to 60.9, even further above the 58.9 March print. Germany’s DAX was off 0.10% this morning, but the CAC 40 in France had gained 0.74%. In the US, Dow futures were up 0.1%, but futures for the S&P 400 were down 0.1% and Nasdaq futures had lost 0.4%. Also unsupportive for crude, the US dollar index had strengthened 0.41%, reversing yesterday’s losses.
Market traders are looking ahead to US international trade in goods and services data for March, expected to show a widening of the deficit from $71 billion to $74 billion. Canadian merchandise trade data for March were also due this morning, expected to show a narrower surplus of C$0.4bn, compared to C$1.04bn in February. It is otherwise a quiet day on the economic calendar, and it was a quiet morning on the newswires.
Crude futures strengthened for a fourth session in five on Monday, with Brent crude gaining 80 cents to close at $67.56 a barrel, WTI crude futures strengthening 91 cents for a $64.49 per barrel settlement, amid weakness in the US dollar and strength in most US and European stock indexes.
On the product end of the barrel, gasoline futures settled 2.52 cents stronger at $2.1015 per gallon, heating oil settled at $1.9519 per gallon, up 2.95 cents.
Natural gas futures added 3.5 cents yesterday, settling at $2.966 per MMBTU.