Petroleum futures were down across the board, but the market hasn't yet reached the lows seen in trading late last week.
Most of the movements Monday are likely the market flowing with other asset classes as U.S. equity markets are pointing lower and there are some headwinds coming from a stronger dollar as the dollar index is trading near two-year highs.
The market may also be a bit cautious as consumer confidence data released earlier Monday came in well below economists' expectations.
February West Texas Intermediate was down about 85cts, trading at $68.61/bbl and starting to inch toward last week's lows.
On Friday, the contract traded as low as $68.42 before rallying.
Additionally, Friday's total volumes for WTI were the lowest since the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and Monday's action may compete with those low levels of activity.
February Brent was down slightly more than the WTI contract after last printing down 94cts at $72/bbl. The Brent contract traded down to a $71.99/bbl low, which is the lowest the contract has traded since Dec. 9, and there has not been much of a bounce from the low so far.
Refined products were also trading lower, with RBOB losses exceeding diesel.
The lightly traded January RBOB was down 2.21cts at $1.9195/gal and the $1.9189 low is still more than 1.5cts over Friday's bottom. It appears that RBOB is comfortable drifting in a roughly $1.90-1.95/gal range based on the past couple of weeks of trading. The more-active February contract was down 2.29cts at $1.9274/gal.
Diesel futures have shrugged off utilities in the Northeast seeing their natural-gas supply curtailed because of several days of below-freezing temperatures.
Prices are still down for ULSD, natural-gas futures are also sliding, as the January and February contracts are down about 2cts. Prices are currently at or near the lows, with January down 1.87cts at $2.213/gal and February trading at $2.219/gal, a drop of 1.74cts.
This content was created by Oil Price Information Service, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. OPIS is run independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
-- Reporting by Denton Cinquegrana, dcinquegrana@opisnet.com; Editing by Michael Kelly, mkelly@opisnet.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
12-23-24 1300ET