Crude oil and refined product futures were rallying Thursday, poised to end a two-day streak of declines in a holiday-shortened trading week.

Oil prices were ahead by more than $1/bbl at about 11:20 a.m. ET while gasoline futures were up by more than 3cts/gal after backing off earlier gains of about 4cts/gal. ULSD contracts were seeing smaller gains, with prices up by more than 1ct/gal.

Petroleum contracts were pressured Wednesday by bearish Energy Information Administration data that showed gains in U.S. crude and gasoline inventories.

The contracts were also pressed by a stronger dollar, which raises the cost of energy contracts for traders using foreign currencies.

The NYMEX May West Texas Intermediate crude contract was up by $1.23 to $82.63/bbl just ahead of midday, less than 20cts below the morning high. The June WTI contract was $1.19 higher at $81.97/bbl.

May Brent crude was $1.21 higher at $87.30/bbl as it heads toward expiration at month's end. The June Brent contract was up by $1.10 to $86.51/bbl.

The April ULSD and RBOB contracts are also heading toward expiration, shifting more trading activity to the May contracts. The NYMEX May RBOB contract was up 3.15cts to $2.7034/gal, about 1.6cts off its morning high, while the April contract was 4.03cts higher at $2.725/gal.

The NYMEX May ULSD contract was 1.83cts higher at $2.6208/gal and the April contract was up 1.99cts to $2.6185/gal.

In U.S. spot markets, gasoline and diesel prices were largely mirroring NYMEX gains, though Los Angeles CARBOB was extending its premium to the May contract by 1ct to 38cts.

While oil contracts are on track to end the holiday-shortened week with gains, refined products will likely see week-to-week declines, with the front-month RBOB contract about 1ct/gal lower than Friday's settlement and the ULSD contract about 5cts/gal below Friday's settlement.


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 Steve Cronin, scronin@Opisnet.com; Editing by Jeff Barber, jbarber@opisnet.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

03-28-24 1220ET