Oil & Gas Prices - Sept 23

[dan_s]

Opening Prices for the front month futures contracts:
> WTI is up 18c to $39.98/Bbl, and Brent is up 24c to $41.96/Bbl.
> Natural gas is up 13.0c to $1.964/MMBtu. < This is the October NYMEX contract. The November futures contract is now trading at $2.70.

[dan_s]

Part of the recent pullback in the price of oil is the increase in the U.S. dollar index: https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/index/dxy

However, the primary reason lower oil prices is the FEAR of more COVID-19 cases in Europe causing more widespread travel restrictions. BofA Equity Research published a report yesterday that focuses on hospitalizations and not the number of new cases. The situation in Europe is nowhere near as bad as some reports because hospitalizations per positive test are running ~5% of what they were in Q2. I posted a summary of the BofA report under today's EIA - Petroleum Report post.

[dan_s]

Closing Prices:
> WTI prompt month (NOV 20) was up $0.13 on the day, to settle at $39.93/Bbl.
> NG prompt month (OCT 20) was up $0.291 on the day, to settle at $2.125/MMBt < The NOV contract closed at $2.79 and DEC contract closed at $3.23.