TN PETRÓLEO

Oil prices steadied on Thursday, after a sharp jump in the previous session, while grains continued to strengthen after broad gains on Wednesday.


Nymex September West Texas Intermediate rose 45 cents to $116.45 a barrel after jumping by $2.99 in the previous session while ICE September Brent added 50 cents at $113.97 a barrel after gaining $2.32 on Wednesday.


September Brent was due to expire at the end of trade on Thursday and the October contract traded 40 cents higher at $115.25 a barrel.


Oil rose on Wednesday after US weekly inventories data showed unexpectedly large declines in crude oil and product stocks.


US crude stocks fell 400,000 barrels, above the consensus forecast for a drop of 200,000 barrels, after tropical storm Edouard disrupted imports, which dropped 538,000 barrels a day to 9.66m b/d.


Activity by refiners was also disrupted by the storm, with refinery utilisation down 1.1 percentage points to 85.9 per cent.


US refiners have shut about 2m b/d of capacity, attempting to bolster their margins. Some traders expect refineries to embark on prolonged maintenance programmes this autumn that will further subdue their demand for crude oil.


The main boost to oil prices came from a massive drop of 6.4m barrels in gasoline stocks, much greater than the consensus forecast of a 2.1m barrel decline.


However, the stock drop was offset by ongoing weakness in US petrol demand, averaging 9.44m barrels a day during the past four weeks, down 1.9 per cent compared with the same period last year.


On Thursday, Nymex September RBOB unleaded gasoline traded 1.1 cents higher at $2.9436 a gallon.


Distillate stocks (including heating oil) fell 1.7m barrels, an unusual decline in summer time and counter to the consensus forecast for an increase of 1.9m barrels.


On Thursday, Nymex September heating oil traded almost unchanged at $3.1352 a gallon.


In electronic trading in Chicago, agricultural commodities rallied continued rally after strong gains on Wednesday which saw much of the forward curves for corn, wheat and soyabeans rising by their daily trading limits.


CBOT September corn rose 7 cents to $5.46 a bushel while CBOT September wheat rose 15½ cents to $8.65¾ a bushel and CBOT September soyabeans added 17 cents at $12.87 a bushel.


Traders cited renewed buying interest following the US Department of Agriculture’s supply update on Tuesday which provided much need clarity on the outlook for this years’ havests after the flooding which affected the midwest earlier this year.


For soyabeans, the USDA’s projection for soyabean stocks at just 135m bushels b the end of 2008/09 is low and suggests the market could remain tight, given ongoing strength in global demand and uncertainty about South America production.


However, almost ideal growing conditions in the US have tempered bullish sentiment towards both soyabeans and corn.


Wheat prices followed corn and soyabeans higher as hedge funds closed out short positions. One trader said US soft red wheat was no trading at a substantial premium to supplies from eastern Europe and this could hurt an additional export demand for the US grain.


After dropping to its lowest level for the year on Tuesday, gold staged a further recovery trading at $833.60 a troy ounce from New York’s late quote of $825.85, rallying from Tuesday’s 8-month low of $801.90. A strong recovery for the dollar has weighed on gold prices.