By Christian Berthelsen
Crude benchmarks were steady Monday, stabilizing for the moment
after a four-month swoon that has dragged the market into bear
territory.
Light sweet crude for front-month November delivery was up 33
cents to $83.10 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The
global Brent contract was down 19 cents to $85.97 on the ICE
Futures Europe exchange.
Analysts said the market was finding support from a decision to
shut down a 500,000 barrel-a-day production field jointly operated
by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait for environmental reasons, at least
temporarily easing growing global supplies of oil at a time of
potentially weak demand.
In a research note, Morgan Stanley said crude cargo loadings
from the Middle East "are set to fall sharply" in the coming weeks,
and production by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting
Countries appeared to be declining from September levels, which
were the highest since the summer of 2013.
Analysts are mixed on whether crude's swoon is over for now or
if the contracts have more room to fall. Some say the selloff has
been overdone and predict stabilization or mild recovery from here,
while others say more declines could be in the works.
"Our broad-based model of expected continued production strength
and softening global demand, forcing world inventories higher,
remains intact," research consultancy Ritterbusch & Associates
said in a note, adding U.S. prices could fall to $75 a barrel and
global prices to $80 a barrel in the coming weeks.
In refined product markets, gasoline futures for front-month
November delivery were down 0.58 cent at $2.2269 a gallon on the
Nymex. November diesel was down 0.54 cent to $2.4922 a gallon.
Write to Christian Berthelsen at
christian.berthelsen@wsj.com
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