$RH PetroGas (T13.SG)$$Rex Intl (5WH.SG)$$Dyna-Mac (NO4.SG)$...
Oil's rally extended on Thu as upbeat U.S. economic data helped crude futures rise while lower-than-usual refinery runs pushed up retail prices of gasoline at pumps across America.
Brent crude for Mar delivery settled up 1.6% at USD87.47. WTI crude for Mar settled up 1.1% at USD81.01.
U.S. refinery runs have fallen below seasonal norms due to inclement weather and unplanned outages that have sent retail gasoline prices rising after dropping to a one-year low in Dec.
Thu's rise in WTI and Brent came after a better-than-expected U.S. GDP number for 4Q2022. Q4 GDP expanded by an annualized 2.9%, down from the yoy expansion of 3.2% in Q3, but still higher than Wall Street economists' forecasts for a 2.6% growth.
GDP aside, U.S. durable goods orders for Dec came in twice more than expected, with a 5.6% gain. Sales of new homes in the U.S. rose for a third straight month in Dec after the Fed slowed its rate hike for the first time last month after aggressive monetary tightening since Jun.
The "better-than-expected U.S. GDP data supports the argument that the Fed could still deliver a soft-landing" to the economy versus fears of a recession, said Ed Moya, analyst at OANDA.
"Improving news with China's COVID situation and a resilient US economy should keep oil prices supported above the USD80 region," Moya added.
A rash of unplanned refinery outages have led to the pile up of crude on the market and boosted gasoline prices at the pump.
Scheduled maintenance could be lengthier than expected this season, with many U.S. Gulf Coast refineries still running below capacity after Winter Storm Elliott disrupted some 1.5 million barrels per day of refining capacity in December. A Suncor refinery in Commerce City, Colorado, has been offline since the storm.
Overhauls are also delayed by legacy problems caused by the now three-year-old coronavirus pandemic, with refiners reportedly planning twice as many overhauls this spring than usual.
The disruptions have caused crude inventories to swell by some 30 mi barrels over the past 5 weeks and gasoline stockpiles to rise by around 10 m barrels, restraining the rally in both crude and gasoline futures. But they have worked in boosting pump prices of gasoline prices.
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