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By the Oil Desk at Freight Investor Services Ltd.

Brent closed last night at $55.72 down 1.09 and WTI closed down 0.82 at $53.01. Well, it is obvious that $57 isn't the new $55 - the same as orange isn't the new black. The market seems to be in a quandary. $55 per bbl is quite obviously the pivot point in this market at the minute and it has been for some time; so is the market waiting or is it just happy here and will plod along nicely around 55? Whether there are equal factors in this market from both bullish and bearish corners is the talk of the town so, if that is the case, are we already in a balanced market? Granted, the market is in a better place than it has been, but the view is not just in the immediate, it is looking further down the curve that the bear is rearing its head.

Economic Date/Events (London times)

* 1:30pm: U.S. Dec. trade balance, est. -$45b (prior -$45.2b)

* 3pm: U.S. Dec. JOLTS job openings, est. 5,580 (prior 5,522)

* ~5pm: EIA releases monthly STEO report

* 9:30pm: API issues weekly U.S. oil inventory report

* Today:

* Bloomberg-compiled weekly snapshot of key U.S. refinery outages with offline capacity projections for CDU, FCC units

* KNPC maintenance summit, 3rd day of 4

* Asia LPG Summit in New Delhi, with speakers from Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum, World LPG Association, among others

* Earnings: BP, Statoil

Singapore 380cst

Mar17 - 312.25 / 314.25

Apr17 - 312.25 / 314.25

May17 - 312.00 / 314.00

Jun17 - 311.25 / 313.25

Jul17 - 310.50 / 312.50

Aug17 - 309.50 / 311.50

Q2-17 - 312.00 / 314.00

Q3-17 - 310.00 / 312.00

Q4-17 - 306.75 / 309.25

Q1-18 - 305.25 / 307.75

CAL18 - 301.25 / 304.75

CAL19 - 286.50 / 291.50

Singapore 180cst

Mar17 - 318.50 / 320.50

Apr17 - 318.50 / 320.50

May17 - 318.75 / 320.75

Jun17 - 318.50 / 320.50

Jul17 - 317.75 / 319.75

Aug17 - 316.75 / 318.75

Q2-17 - 318.50 / 320.50

Q3-17 - 317.00 / 319.00

Q4-17 - 313.75 / 316.25

Q1-18 - 312.50 / 315.00

CAL18 - 308.75 / 312.25

CAL19 - 295.25 / 300.25

Rotterdam Barges

Mar17 296.50 / 298.50

Apr17 297.00 / 299.00

May17 297.00 / 299.00

Jun17 296.50 / 298.50

Jul17 295.75 / 297.75

Aug17 294.75 / 296.75

Q2-17 297.00 / 299.00

Q3-17 295.25 / 297.25

Q4-17 290.50 / 293.00

Q1-18 289.50 / 292.00

CAL18 287.25 / 290.75

CAL19 272.50 / 277.50

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Founded in 2002, Freight Investor Services is a specialist in dry bulk and commodity derivatives, including cargo freight, iron ore, fertilizer and bunker fuel. The company has offices in London, Dubai, Singapore and Shanghai.

For further details about fuel oil swaps or to discuss trading opportunities, please contact Andrew Cullen, Client Relations & Development Manager, on +44 207 090 1126, or email AndrewC@freightinvestor.com.