Oil hedging activity reaches record levels in October as traders take on market risks
Oil futures and option trading reached record levels during October as investors sought to hedge against the growing uncertainty caused by the ongoing war in the Middle East, and an upcoming bearish supply and demand forecast for 2025. This led to big swings in oil prices.
S&P 500 closes near flat; more data on jobs is awaited. Middle East in focus
S&P 500 closed little changed Wednesday. Technology shares gained, but investors were nervous about Middle East tensions. Also, more U.S. employment data is due this week. Nvidia shares are up, which helped lift the S&P 500 Technology index. Nike shares…
As tensions in the Middle East escalate, futures prices fall; employment data is on tap
U.S. Stock Index Futures fell on Wednesday, as geopolitical tensions and a port strike in the United States kept investors on edge before data that was expected to shed some light on the state of the economy and its monetary policy trajectory. Wall Street's…
CME Adds Two Delivery Points to WTI Houston
CME Group on Thursday said it would add two more delivery points for its WTI Houston crude futures contract, pending regulatory review, as it seeks to provide customers with additional options to hedge physical price risk.* Beginning with the March 2020 contract, customers can take delivery of U.S.
Rising U.S. Shale Exports Turn WTI into 24-hour Benchmark -CME
Rising U.S. crude oil exports to Europe and Asia have had a knock-on effect in the futures market, turning the U.S. West Texas Intermediate contract into a near-24 hour benchmark, exchange operator CME Group said. Owain Johnson, managing director for energy research and development at CME…
Cushing's Market Clout Wanes Amid U.S. Crude Export Boom
The volume of oil sitting in 300 steel tanks in a nine-square-mile radius in Cushing, Oklahoma has long been a key barometer for the health of U.S. crude supply and the nation's benchmark for daily trading of billions of dollars in the commodity. But those tanks could soon drain to levels near effectively empty…
US Oil Industry Set to Break Record, Upend Global Trade
Surging shale production is poised to push U.S. oil output to more than 10 million barrels per day - toppling a record set in 1970 and crossing a threshold few could have imagined even a decade ago. And this new record, expected within days, likely won't last long. The U.S.
Oil Steadies Ahead of OPEC Meeting
U.S. output may rise more than rig count suggests - Westwood. Oil prices were only slightly firmer on Tuesday as traders looked ahead to a meeting next week at which major crude exporters are expected to extend production cuts but the prospect of rising U.S. output capped gains.
Matrix Global Plans U.S. Crude Storage Deal
Matrix plans sweet crude storage futures at LOOP. Matrix Global Holdings is planning to start up an oil storage futures contract for low-sulphur crude oil that will enable companies to build up supplies for export cargoes, as Asia looks for more crude imports from the United States.
Limits of Analysis on Commitments of Traders: Kemp
Futures and options markets play an increasingly important role in pricing crude oil but little is known about the identity and behaviour of market participants or their impact on prices. The only comprehensive information on traders’ positions regularly…
China Sets Sights on Oil Benchmark
China has opened more than 6,000 trading accounts for its long-awaited crude futures contract - with three-quarters coming from individual traders - as it pushes ahead with plans to compete with global pricing benchmarks. China's oil majors and about 150 brokerages have also registered…
Asia Demand, Hedging Boosts Trading in Forward U.S. Oil Contracts
Trading volumes and open interest in U.S. crude futures soared in 2016, particularly among buyers out of Asia and shale companies locking in output, both of whom have shown an affinity for far-dated contracts, the CME Group Inc said on Thursday. NYMEX light…
ICE to Offer First US Gulf Coast LNG Futures Contract
With the United States about to become a net exporter of natural gas for the first time in 60 years, Intercontinental Exchange Inc said on Wednesday it would begin trading the first-ever U.S. liquefied natural gas futures contract in May. ICE said the contracts…
China's Crude Oil Futures Dilemma - Control or Success?
The quiet demise of China's plans to launch a new crude oil futures contract shows the innate conflict of wanting the financial clout that comes with being the world's biggest commodity buyer, but also seeking to control the market. It has been a long-standing…
Bytes and Barrels: the origins of oil traders' love of Yahoo
For the oil industry, Yahoo Inc's decision this week to sell its core business to Verizon Communications Inc for $4.8 billion does not matter all that much. Their world already changed a few months ago, when the company said it would jettison its messaging…
Former Delta fuel executive, Wife Banned by CME
CME Group on Monday banned a former Delta Air Lines fuel trading executive for using his wife's accounts to "front-run" the airline's hedging positions - trades that netted him a profit of more than $3 million. Jon Ruggles was banned by the financial exchange operator…
Chevron's Gorgon LNG to Push Asian Spot Trading
Chevron has started up its massive Gorgon LNG project in Australia and will soon be shipping more of the super-chilled fuel into an oversupplied market, eroding producer revenues but also likely hastening the advent of a liquid Asian spot market. The $54 billion project…
Trafigura's First Singapore LNG Derivatives Deal
Singapore Exchange said on Monday that European trading house Trafigura and locally based Pavilion Gas made the first trade of a just-launched derivatives contract for liquefied natural gas (LNG). The transaction, worth some $50,000, was based on Singapore's…
Oil Near 11-year Lows on Supply, Demand
Saudi budget signals no change to oil policy; Iran on track to raise supply in 2016. Oil prices steadied not far off their 11-year lows on Tuesday, under pressure from slowing global demand and abundant supplies, with Saudi Arabia signalling no change to its oil policies and Iran preparing to ramp up exports.
CFTC Charges Chicago Trader with "spoofing" Futures
U.S. derivatives regulators charged a Chicago-based trader and his firm on Monday with using a manipulative trading tactic known as "spoofing" in the futures market across four different exchanges. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, in a civil lawsuit…
