Petroleum futures were making a solid run higher Monday, led by crude oil that was up more than $1 approaching midday.

After threatening to fall below the $70 level last week, West Texas Intermediate has bounced back and by midday was trading at or near fresh highs for the day. President Trump said on Sunday he was planning to announce new 25% tariffs on aluminum and steel imports, and that could be bringing some buying into oil.

March WTI topped out at $72.52 within the last 45 minutes and prices are currently up $1.30 at $72.30/bbl. The Brent contract is trading at $75.86/bbl, an increase of $1.20.

In refined products, the diesel market appears a bit more compelling than gasoline. Natural gas in Europe is climbing as cold weather keeps demand elevated, and based on conversions, the price of natural gas is at parity or even slightly above the cost of diesel. While the strong natural gas is supportive, so too is the domestic weather in the one-to-two-week time frame as plenty of the country is expected to see below-normal temperatures.

At one point, March ULSD was up just over 4cts, but the contract has backed off and is trading 2.61cts higher at $2.4569/gal. The April contract for now is keeping up, but there is a wide spread of about 6cts between the two months, a further indication of solid up-front demand. April ULSD was last trading at $2.3949/gal, up 2.73cts.

The RBOB contract is higher Monday but lagging. At the same time, the spread between March and April futures was getting a little wider this morning. At midday, front-month RBOB was up 0.63ct at $2.1114/gal. The April contract is starting to pick up a bit more volume, and that contract is up a little over 1.5cts at $2.3371/gal.

Although spot market activity is light to start the week, West Coast premiums jumped late last week with the San Francisco market running 68cts over futures and Los Angeles north of a 50ct premium.


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

02-10-25 1253ET