Futures : Energy Update

Commodities as a whole continued their weak start to the year. WTI continued lower, trading below the $55.00 level with little sign of recovery.

The latest US weekly inventory data resulted in a strong number for gasoline, but it also shows further "builds in oil product inventories above seasonal norms due to the continuation of high refinery runs".

EIA data showed Crude inventories dropped by a huge 5000k barrels against forecasts of only 500k barrels.

Distillate stocks were up 5400k barrels against the expected 2200 barrel gain as a result of the drop in demand for heating oil, in line with the warmer weather spell in the US.

In lieu of the negative sentiment, we move our stance to neutral and await a signal in the market before entering into new positions.