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The price of crude oil was moving lower Monday morning amid concerns over demand growth after China signaled tighter lending policies. The People's Bank of China said it would fine-tune its policies as needed, suggesting slightly easier monetary conditions ahead as an acute cash crunch exacerbated challenges faced by an already slowing economy. The bank will continue to implement prudent monetary policy, the central bank said in a statement after a quarterly meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee chaired by Governor Zhou Xiaochuan in Beijing. Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for August delivery, slipped $0.22 to $93.47 a barrel. Last week, oil shed over 4 percent as markets slumped after the U.S. Federal Reserve indicated possible tapering its monetary stimulus support, as early as the year end if the economy continued to show signs of improvement.

ICE Gasoil contract for July delivery settled at 858.50 USD on Friday. This was 17.25 USD below Thursday's settlement. With some 67,800 deals the traded volume was above average.

As oil prices had fallen steeply on Thursday, they slightly corrected upwards during morning trade on Friday. Traders were liquidating their risk positions place the previous day. However, Brent and WTI bounced of their resistances at 103.10 USD and at 95.80 USD, respectively, which stopped oil futures’ advance. During U.S. trade in the afternoon, oil markets incurred considerable losses and breached several supports due to bearish fundamental and technical indicators, resulting in more technical selling orders. So oil traders saw another sell-off Friday and as guiding signals were lacking, oil futures closed with considerable losses again. After the FOMC meeting, G.Oil had lost 4.4% within two days and Brent even 4.9%. Only at the psychologically important support at 100.00 USD did selling pressure decrease in the late evening.

The Stochastic oscillator remains bearish this morning but is moving in the oversold zone now. The RSI, however, is neutral. Generally, there are no fresh signals after last week’s round of sales. Given the downturn on Thursday and Friday, a lot of the bearish potential may be used up by now and thus, technical selling pressure has eased for the time being. The decisive marker will be Brent’s key resistance at 100 USD today. If the North Sea crude managed to sustainable breach this line, more technical sellings could be triggered. So as fresh signals are lacking, we consider the technical constellation as slightly bearish this morning.

U.S.

Nymex bearish: After last week’s heavy losses and the lack of fresh signals, oil markets in London and New York seem to have run out of steam this morning, consolidating sideways in a narrow range. The trade volume at NYMEX is slightly above average for this time of day. Market players are now eying the performance of European markets, new clues from forex trading and some economic data to be released in the course of the day.

Houston (ex-wharf indications 21-06 )
380cst $575
180cst $616
MGO $956

New Orleans (ex-wharf indications 21-06)
380cst $578
180cst $639
MGO $955

Singapore (correct as of 1430hrs LT - delivered indications)

The Singapore fuel oil markets fell between -$8.0 to -$2.0 during the Asian Platts window las Friday. Bunker demand was said to be healthy as outright prices fell. The delivered bunker premiums inched up around +$6.5 above cargoes prices. This morning the markets are trading marginally higher.

380cst $583
180cst $597
MGO $860

Fujairah (delivered indications 24-06)

380cst $591
180cst $674
MGO $1000

ARA (Amsterdam - Rotterdam - Antwerp)

Indications for delivered bunkers:
380cst : $567
(1.0 %) :$ 597
180cst: $ 597
(1.0 %):$ 623
MGO 0.1%S: $ 842