There are some signs that things are getting better.
There is a long list of production and refineries out because of the hurricane. The course is similar to what we saw with Ivan last year, which hit production for a long time.
Signs of weaker demand are hanging over the market. There has been a tremendous rise in prices over the past year, which had to have an effect.
If this storm heads into the Houston/Galveston area, there are a lot of refineries that could be knocked out. It's still a very nervous market.
I hate to use the word crisis, but there is certainly potential for real supply tightness,
The rally just ran out of steam. We are going to have to see some sustained cold weather to reduce these inventories.
Overall, the numbers were somewhat neutral, so we continued with the trend from this morning, which was upward.
We still have some major problems down in the Gulf, and they're not going to go away.
You have to believe that high prices have certainly hurt some demand. But how much is another story. If prices at the pump start falling, everyone will go right back to their old ways of guzzling gas.
There are just so many things going on, that I think it's going to take a few weeks to sort out all the issues and determine what the long-term fundamental picture is, ... At this point, I'm not convinced the long-term uptrend is finished.
But the Iranian situation hasn't gone away. So $62 crude is probably not a bad value, and people see that as a buying opportunity.
We got a bigger-than-expected decline because offshore production is still down by more than 50 percent and imports were down. The shock of Katrina is still being felt.
We certainly can't stand another storm, ... That's why people are watching the storms out there now.
We saw some late short-covering today. Once everyone realizes the downside is done, we'll bounce back next week and trade back around $11.
Could it go back to the record? Basically it goes without saying.
The short-term trend is down. The market finds it hard to muster any upside momentum. When it became clear we weren't going to get above $60 the mass selling started again.
Products were strong, with the refinery maintenance season in full swing keeping the Gulf Coast gasoline cash markets very strong.
Demand is snapping right back. Even with the high prices, there hasn't been that big an impact on demand.
This is a bull market and we have not found a top yet.
This market has run up too far too fast. It's a needed correction.
There's been a lot of gas headed this way. Can we sustain these types of import numbers? Probably unlikely, but we've had a pretty good surge in the last three weeks.
There's already plenty of crude in the market. Adding more crude to a market that already has plenty of crude doesn't make much of a difference.
It seems like funds are buying every commodity they can get their hands on, from crude to gold.
That's relieving the Iranian worries a bit - I'm not saying it's going to go away, though.
There's talk that OPEC might raise quotas at the meeting next week. I'm not sure this will actually mean more barrels though.
The inventories have built a little bit, but that doesn't mean an outage somewhere doesn't cause price spikes.
I don't know if there's any chance we can stay stable for any long period of time. There are too many issues in the market.
Gasoline led the way all week, which should continue when we come in next week.
Heating oil inventories are a far cry from what they should be at this time of year and (traders) don't think we're going to catch up in time for winter.
The market had no business going down yesterday.
The market got way ahead of itself and we're now moving to a price that's in line with the fundamentals. The only question is how much farther we have to go.
The Iranian situation is one that has supported the market for the last few weeks.
The Iranian minister's comment got it going a little bit.
The market's been down a bit lately because of the (warmer) weather. So I thought we were going to see a bounce, but this was much more than I expected to see today.
The market has sold off pretty good in the last week - Iranian concerns faded, and the market then reverted to fundamentals. Inventories seem to be adequate everywhere.
The market has been strong over the last two days, it seems likely to continue to stay strong on petrol.
The market is just breaking down a bit after rallying in the middle of the week.
