Why Abundant Oil Hasn’t Cut Gasoline Prices

Without realizing it, U.S. drivers are competing for American-made gasoline with consumers in Latin America and Asia, where demand is rising. “Americans don’t think about their prices being impacted by a global market,” says Morse. “The American public just thinks about the rising price at the pump.”

For the first time since 1995, the U.S. will likely produce more oil than it imports. That’s great for the country’s trade balance, but the benefits of all that cheap domestic crude still haven’t shown up at the one place it matters most: the gas station.

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Commodities Erase 2012 Gain on Global Economic Woes

Commodities declined, erasing this year’s advance, on speculation that demand for energy, industrial metals and some agricultural products will slump because of the sluggish global economy.

Cotton futures fell the most in 10 weeks, and crude oil dropped to the lowest since mid-July. Gasoline declined for the ninth straight session, the longest slump since at least October 2005. Copper dropped to the lowest since Sept. 7.

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U.S. Oil Boom Falls Short of the Pump

Gasoline prices currently average nearly $4 per gallon nationwide. Rising U.S. crude production may seem like an attractive antidote, but it is proving ineffective on its own at a time when the world’s appetite for energy remains voracious and Middle East tension is a reminder that supplies could be disrupted.

U.S. crude production is expected to rise 12% this year and 8% in 2013, when it will hit the highest level since 1993, according to government figures. The price of West Texas crude, the U.S. benchmark, has fallen 7% this year, held down by rising supplies from new drilling methods.

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Oil Plunges 4% as Part of Broader Commodities Rout

Commodities like copper and crude oil are often seen as a barometer for industrial activity and, as such, the strength of the world economy. The steep price drops in both over the past few months, with oil down around 30% and copper off 15% since March, are sending a worrying signal about the depth of the global economic problems.

Oil prices plunged 4% to below $80, part of a broad selloff in commodities, sending an alarming signal about the health of the global economy.

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Commodities Erase 2011 Gain on Faltering Recovery

Crude-oil futures fell to the lowest level in five months on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On the Comex in New York, silver for September delivery fell as much as 6.2 percent, and copper futures dropped to a one-month low.

Commodities slumped, erasing gains for the year, on growing concern that the global economic recovery is faltering.

The Thomson Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 raw materials slumped 2.4 percent to 329.31 as of 1 p.m. in New York, led by declines in silver, energy and nickel. A settlement at that level would leave the index down 1 percent for the year.

via Commodities Erase 2011 Gain on Faltering Recovery – Bloomberg.

US ethylene margins fall nearly 4% on weaker spot prices

US ethylene spot prices fell sharply during the week ended 15 April, dropping by 10% to 58.50 cents/lb in one day on pressure from lower ethane and crude oil prices early in the week.

US ethylene margins fell by nearly 4% in the second week of April following a drop in ethylene spot prices, the ICIS margin report showed on Monday.

Ethylene spot margins were at 32.54 cents/lb ($717/tonne, €495/tonne) last week, down from 33.81 cents/lb in the previous week, using ethane as a feedstock.

Crude oil prices fell after a large US investment bank warned its clients that prices had climbed far above the values supported by market fundamentals.

The comment spooked investors, causing the front-month West Texas Intermediate (WTI) contract to shed 6% in only two days.

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via Textile News – USA : US ethylene margins fall nearly 4% on weaker spot prices.