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Crude oil futures swung between small gains and losses this morning, as investors focused on global supplies.

Oil futures at ICE and NYMEX started weak on Friday morning after Thursday's price decline. Chinese crude oil imports considerably increased in April thwarting oil futures' downward movement on Friday but they considerably dropped on Friday afternoon after the release of US labor market data. While WTI dropped to its support at € 51.98 and Brent to € 57.16, the € 524.74 mark at the Gasoil chart stayed strong. Trading volume was rather weak before the weekend and oil futures consolidated as market players acted cautious before the release of the Baker Hughed report on Friday evening and for fresh signals. 11 US oil rigs have been shut down in the reported week according to the Baker Hughes report. This number is too little to trigger a bullish signal but too large to be bearish. Therefore, this report hardly influenced oil futures which finally kept consolidating on their settlement levels in London and New York. The Chinese central bank cut its interest rate level at the weekend. But this cut had no sustainable influence on oil futures at ICE so far.

ICE Gasoil contract for May delivery settled at € 531.21 on Friday, this is -€ 9.14 below Thursday's settlement. With some 32,800 deals the traded volume (front month) was below average.

There are no important signals this morning after last week's selling signals which were triggered by the RSI, by the stochastic indicator and by the breach of several important supports. Therefore, we consider the technical constellation as neutral this morning. After Brent and WTI dropped below their supports of their medium term downward trend, there is some downside which even reaches their Friday's lows. The 21 day moving average support is also located near these lows. If oil futures breach the moving average technical selling pressure could increase again considerably.

U.S.

Nymex above avarage: Oil futures at ICE and NYMEX consolidate in a rather narrow range this morning. The Chinese interest rate cut wasn't able to trigger any supporting signals while the strong dollar rather weighs on oil futures. The traded volume at NYMEX is below average at this time of the day. Market players are waiting for the European financial and the forex markets to open while there are no important economic indicators on the agenda today.

Houston (ex-wharf indications 11-5)
380cst $357
180cst $467
MGO $677

New Orleans (ex-wharf indications 11-5)
380cst $367
180cst $418
MGO $679

Singapore (delivered indications 11-5)

WTI is losing with -$0.30. Singapore paper is neutral with -$0.25 for 180cst with +$0.75 for 380cst for May, and for Jun 180 cst -$0.45 and 380cst with +$0.55 with MGO contracts may gaining with +$0.17 and bearish in Jun with -$0.09. The cargo market is bearish with 180cst -$7.09, 380cst with -$9.54 and MGO with -$2.28.

380cst $379
180cst $395
MGO $584

Fujairah (delivered indications 11-5)

380cst $388
180cst $402
MGO $740

ARA (Amsterdam - Rotterdam - Antwerp)

Indications for delivered bunkers:
380cst : $353
MGO 0.1%S: $583