Crude oil prices tumbled on Friday but regained lost ground on Monday as a mixture of tightening Covid-19 restrictions, vaccine hopes, data showing falling gasoline demand, the contested US election result and a weakening US dollar caused prices to yo-yo. Brent and WTI lost 3.6% and 4.3% on Friday to close the week at USD 39.45/barrel and USD 37.14/barrel, respectively, but both soared by around 9% on Monday after Pfizer and German partner BioNTech SE announced encouraging results from a coronavirus vaccine trial.
European gas hubs softened notably on Friday, with UK NBP and Dutch TTF falling by more than 3% to settle at the equivalent of USD 5.26/MMBtu and USD 4.84/MMBtu, respectively. US gas benchmark Henry Hub’s front month contract fell 1.8% to close the session at USD 2.89/MMBtu, a three-week low. CME’s December-dated JKM futures contract returned to growth, rising 0.7% to USD 6.91/MMBtu.
The European carbon price weakened on Friday, as month-ahead ETS allowance (EUA) futures lost 2.2% to close at EUR 25.42/tonne.
Front-month futures and indexes at last close with day-on-day changes (click to enlarge):
Time references based on London GMT. Brent, WTI, NBP, TTF and EU CO2 data from ICE. Henry Hub, JKM and API2 data from CME. Prices in USD/MMBtu based on exchange rates at last market close. All monetary values rounded to nearest whole cent/penny. Text and graphic copyright © Gas Strategies, all rights reserved.
