Oil Steady While Gasoline Spikes as Hurricane Harvey Approaches

Oil trimmed a fourth weekly decline as traders braced for impact of Hurricane Harvey on the U.S. refining hub in the Gulf of Mexico. Gasoline futures surged to the highest in four months.Front-month crude futures rose 0.5 percent in New York, paring Thursday’s 2 percent decline. Gasoline gained as much as 4.6 percent. While some oil and gas production has shut in the Gulf, the storm is bearing down on an area in the state of Texas that’s home to much of the U.S.’s refining capacity. If Harvey, currently a Category 2, makes the forecast landfall as a Category 3, it will be the strongest storm to hit since Wilma in 2005.

Oil in New York has lost almost 5 percent this month as investors weigh rising global output against supply cuts by members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies. While Harvey has curtailed some U.S. oil output, the greater impact could be on crude demand, with about 1 million barrels a day of refining capacity already shut down.

Source: Oil Trims Weekly Drop as Storm Heads for Texas; Gasoline Surges – Bloomberg

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Former Craig

Former Craig

Former Senior Market Analyst, UK & EMEA at OANDA
Based in London, Craig Erlam joined OANDA in 2015 as a market analyst. With many years of experience as a financial market analyst and trader, he focuses on both fundamental and technical analysis while producing macroeconomic commentary. His views have been published in the Financial Times, Reuters, The Telegraph and the International Business Times, and he also appears as a regular guest commentator on the BBC, Bloomberg TV, FOX Business and SKY News. Craig holds a full membership to the Society of Technical Analysts and is recognised as a Certified Financial Technician by the International Federation of Technical Analysts.