Crude and refined product futures rose across the board midday Thursday, led by notable gains in RBOB gasoline contracts, thanks to strong investor appetite for riskier assets like equities and energy commodities.
U.S. blue chip benchmark Dow Jones Industrials Average topped 40,000 points for the first time in history on Thursday, as encouraging U.S. jobless claims data and signs of easing inflation bolstered the expectations of possible Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts later this year.
At 12 p.m. ET, the most active July NYMEX RBOB futures jumped 4.15cts to around $2.5275 a gallon, and front-month June RBOB increased 4.6cts to $2.543/gal. July ULSD was ahead by 1.75cts at $2.456/gal and June ULSD climbed 1.75cts to $2.4405/gal.
Turning to crude futures, NYMEX West Texas Intermediate for July delivery was up about 75cts at $78.9/barrel and June WTI also gained 75cts to 79.4/bbl.
London-based July ICE Brent was 60cts higher at $83.35/bbl, and August Brent climbed by a similar amount to $82.95/bbl.
Investors bought riskier assets after data showed the latest weekly jobless claims data fell. On Wednesday, U.S. data showed consumer prices edged up about 0.3% in April compared to March.
Data suggesting a cooled economy could allow the U.S. central bank to begin cutting interest rates, which are currently at a much higher level compared to the start of Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020.
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 Frank Tang, ftang@opisnet.com; Editing by Jason Titze, jtitze@opisnet.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
05-16-24 1302ET
