NYMEX Overview : Petroleum Futures Up at Midday as Equities, Precious Metals Strengthen — OPIS
Petroleum futures were trading higher near midday Monday on what appears to be “risk-on” day as U.S. equities and precious metals were posting sharp gains in the wake of the U.S. attack against Venezuela.
Oil futures, which settled lower in each of the previous three sessions, were poised to break the skid and refined product contracts bounced off fresh lows early to trade in the black. Despite the gain, prices are essentially trading at the higher end of the range seen over the past two weeks.
West Texas Intermediate and Brent futures were up by more than $1 in early trading, but gave back some of those gains by late morning. The NYMEX February WTI contract, which rose as high as $58.51/bbl, was up 78cts to $58.10/bbl. The Brent contract, which traded as high as $61.88 in the morning session, was 76cts higher at $61.51/bbl near midday. The morning highs for both contracts was similar to prices seen in the middle of last week.
Refined product futures were also up, with ULSD contract gains outpacing those for gasoline. The NYMEX February ULSD contract was 2.23cts higher at $2.1374/gal. The front-month ULSD contract fell as low as $2.0893/gal when trading resumed Sunday, the lowest value since June 6. Cash distillate prices in most U.S. markets were up by just over 2cts Monday, but the spot price in Chicago was about 4cts higher as its discount to futures narrowed by 2cts.
The February RBOB contract backed off a morning high of $1.7258/gal and was up 1.87cts to $1.7169/gal. As was likely the case with diesel, there was perhaps a bit of panic selling late Sunday, when the RBOB contract dropped to $1.6656/gal, the lowest value since February 2021.
U.S. spot gasoline prices were mostly trading about 2cts higher Monday, except in the Group 3 market, where wider discounts to the NYMEX left the implied price below $1.50/gal.
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.
By Denton Cinquegrana, dcinquegrana@opisnet.com; Editing byJeffrey Barber,
jbarber@opisnet.com
(c) 2026 Oil Price Information Service, LLC. All rights reserved.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
01-05-26 1247ET
