By Leon Westgate
Crude oil also remains dominated by the strength of the dollar, with this morning's dollar weakness seeing prices rally strongly and WTI test $73/bbl ahead of the busy afternoon session. With little economic data of note, the dollar and technical signals will likely dominate price direction this afternoon.
This evening sees the release of the latest API inventory figures, however the focus remains on the more closely watched DOE inventory numbers due out tomorrow afternoon. Consensus expectations are for DOE inventory figures to show a 1.5 million bbl increase in crude oil stocks, a 1.5 million bbl decrease in distillate stocks and a 0.5 million bbl increase in gasoline inventory.
Meanwhile, and aside from gold, China Investment Corp. has also been active in the energy markets with the fund investing in the US Oil Fund ETF. CIC has subsequently become the fund’s fourth largest holder after purchasing 2 million shares with a value of $78.6 million, equivalent to 3.48% of the total.
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Nearby coal, prices were a little softer on Monday with API2 for Q2-10 falling $0.30/mt to $76.95 and API4 for the same date falling $0.40/mt to $79.85. Interestingly however, the back end of the curve picked up markedly with API2 gaining $0.35/mt for Q1-11and $0.95/mt for Q4-11.
