Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label oil prices

Imbalances in the physical - financial oil market

Another reminder of what happens when imbalances in the physical/financial markets compound in a vicious manner: The June oil contract has halved in price so far today. Expect the oil ETF fund to lose a lot of the flows it gained in recent weeks. The price of a WTI barrel of oil rebounded on Tuesday and is now back in the black, mimicking the June futures contract—rather than May’s future contract that is set to expire Tuesday afternoon. But the volatility is not yet behind us. The June contract for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was trading down more than 65% on the day at $6.5 per barrel at 13:45pm EST. The spot prices yesterday were closely linked to the May futures contract, which were also in the red on Monday. Today, however, on the day that this CLK20 futures contract is set to expire, WTI prices are tracking the June futures instead. The May futures contract, or CLK20, rose $41.88 on Tuesday, reaching $4.25. The extreme volatility in the oil markets this week is largel...