Written on: October 1, 2026
Thursday, October 1, 2026
Crude oil futures are rising again on Thursday amid news that Chinese fuel exporters have canceled some oil-product cargoes and flat-to-higher trade in US stock market index futures, despite some strength in the US dollar index and mostly lower trade in European equities.
Bloomberg News reports that Chinese fuel exporters have canceled some gasoline and diesel cargoes slated for export in October, as Asia’s top consumer prioritizes domestic supply during an extended period of upheaval in global energy markets. Market participants looked ahead to a busy data of economic data releases including US Challenger Job-Cut data, the final September US Manufacturing PMI, the ISM Manufacturing Index, US construction spending data, and to weekly US jobless claims for further direction.
In India, the Markit/Nikkei Manufacturing PMI for September was finalized at 55.1, missing the 55.7 flash print. Asian stock markets closed in the black overnight as the Nikkei in Japan jumped 3.30% higher. The Shanghai and Hong Kong Stock Exchanges were closed for a holiday. In European economic news, the final September S&P Global Manufacturing PMI for Germany (53.9), France (50.6) and the Eurozone as a whole (52.9) came in above their respective flash readings of 53.8, 50.3 and 52.7. The index for the UK (51.9), however, came in below the 52.0 flash estimates. The unemployment rate throughout the Eurozone held steady at 6.4% in August, matching expectations. European equities were trading in the red this morning as the German DAX had shed 0.2%, the French CAC 40 had fallen 0.8% and the UK FTSE had lost 1.1%.
Futures for the major US stock market indexes were trading flat to higher as Dow futures had edged up 0.1%, S&P 500 futures had added 0.3%, and Nasdaq futures had risen 0.6%. The US dollar index was up 0.3% as of this writing, which is unsupportive for crude oil prices.
The energy complex settled higher yesterday amid bullish refined products inventory data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) and flat-to-higher trade in US shares, despite news of increased flows in the Middle East, bearish crude oil stock data from the EIA, and lower trade in European equities.