Energy and Commodities

Today’s Discussion:

February 3, 2012 

Commodities are mostly higher this morning, but don’t have a whole lot of traction heading into the trading day on Wall Street.

Crude oil is drifting along, with a modest gain of 0.16% this morning up to $96.52. While traders had been keeping an eye on supply-side issues related to unrest in the Middle East and Iran particularly, attention has largely shifted to the demand side this week.

Disappointing inventories data took away all momentum from the energy markets. The Energy Department’s report on Wednesday confirmed a big jump in inventories. Crude stockpiles had risen by 4.2 million barrels last week, while gasoline inventories also climbed 3.0 2 million barrels. Other data showed gasoline demand fell to its lowest level in more than 10 years.

Adding some support has been the steady flow of positive economic data. In the US, the private sector added 170,000 jobs, construction spending was higher than expected, and manufacturing was in line with expectations. US jobless claims also fell. Global manufacturing data was better than expected this week.