By FXEmpire.com

Introduction: Crude Oil is considered the king of the commodities markets.

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is the United States’ emergency oil stockpile, and it is the largest emergency petroleum supply in the world. The reserve stores about 570 million barrels of crude oil in underground salt caverns at four sites along the Gulf of Mexico. Any dipping into this reserve is going to be big news.

Brent Crude is traded in London as something called Futures contracts, which are priced in US Dollars. Now, all you traders brave enough to run your positions over a period of days or weeks, pay attention

Most commonly traded is the NYMEX where you find West Texas Crude. It is also traded in USD.

Weekly Analysis and Recommendation:

Crude Oil continued to climb this week only briefly responding to threats from the Obama administration that the President was reconsidering plans to release the strategic reserves. Crude oil ended the week at 96.17

As global political tensions mount, compounded with a decrease in weekly inventory reported this week, crude oil has been able gain momentum. Also was the positive attitude in the markets commodities have been trading up.

Overall it was a quiet summer week with little volume and little news flow as investors take a break before the September madness.

Date

Last

Open

High

Low

Change %

Aug 17, 2012

96.17

95.31

96.28

94.99

0.92%

Aug 16, 2012

95.30

94.36

95.73

93.94

0.99%

Aug 15, 2012

94.36

93.18

94.90

92.70

1.31%

Aug 14, 2012

93.14

92.59

93.92

92.58

0.61%

Aug 13, 2012

92.58

93.25

94.14

92.07

-0.70%

FxEmpire provides in-depth analysis for each currency and commodity we review. Fundamental analysis is provided in three components. We provide a detailed monthly analysis and forecast at the beginning of each month. Then we provide more recent analysis and information in our weeklyreports and we provide daily updates and outlooks.

Major Economic Events for the week of August 13-17, 2012 actual v. forecast for Euro, GPB, the Franc, and USD

Date

Time

Currency

Event

Actual

Forecast

Previous

Aug 14

8:30

GBP

CPI y/y

2.6%

2.3%

2.4%

9:00

EUR

German ZEW Economic Sentiment

-25.5

-19.4

-19.6

12:30

USD

Core Retail Sales m/m

0.8%

0.4%

-0.8%

12:30

USD

PPI m/m

0.3%

0.3%

0.1%

12:30

USD

Retail Sales m/m

0.8%

0.3%

-0.7%

Aug 15

8:30

GBP

Claimant Count Change

-5.9K

6.2K

1.0K

8:30

GBP

MPC Meeting Minutes

0-0-9

0-0-9

0-0-9

12:30

USD

Core CPI m/m

0.1%

0.2%

0.2%

Aug 16

8:30

GBP

Retail Sales m/m

0.3%

0.0%

0.8%

12:30

USD

Building Permits

0.81M

0.77M

0.76M

12:30

USD

Unemployment Claims

366K

365K

364K

14:00

USD

Philly Fed Manufacturing Index

-7.1

-4.7

-12.9

Aug 17

13:55

USD

Prelim UoM Consumer Sentiment

73.6

72.5

72.3

Historical: From 2010 to Present

Highest: 114.81 on May 02, 2011

Average: 89.58 over this period

Lowest: 67.17 on May 25, 2010

WEEKLY

  • This Week in Petroleum
    Release Schedule: Wednesday @ 1:00 p.m. EST (schedule)
  • Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update
    Release Schedule: Monday between 4:00 and 5:00 p.m. EST (schedule)
  • Weekly Petroleum Status Report
    Release Schedule: The wpsrsummary.pdf, overview.pdf, and Tables 1-14 in CSV and XLS formats, are released to the Web site after 10:30 a.m. (Eastern Time) on Wednesday. All other PDF and HTML files are released to the Web site after 1:00 p.m. (Eastern Time) on Wednesday. Appendix D is produced during the winter heating season, which extends from October through March of each year. For some weeks which include holidays, releases are delayed by one day. (schedule)

Economic Highlights of the coming week that affect the Euro, GBP, CHF and the USD

Date

Time

Currency

Event

Previous

Aug 21

8:30

GBP

Public Sector Net Borrowing

12.1B

10:00

GBP

CBI Industrial Order Expectations

-6

Aug 22

14:00

USD

Existing Home Sales

4.37M

14:30

USD

Crude Oil Inventories

-3.7M

18:00

USD

FOMC Meeting Minutes

Aug 23

6:00

CHF

Trade Balance

2.25B

7:00

EUR

French Flash Manufacturing PMI

43.4

7:00

EUR

French Flash Services PMI

50.0

7:30

EUR

German Flash Manufacturing PMI

43.0

7:30

EUR

German Flash Services PMI

50.3

8:00

EUR

Flash Manufacturing PMI

44.0

8:00

EUR

Flash Services PMI

47.9

8:30

GBP

BBA Mortgage Approvals

26.3K

10:00

GBP

CBI Realized Sales

11

12:30

USD

Unemployment Claims

366K

13:00

USD

Flash Manufacturing PMI

51.4

14:00

USD

New Home Sales

350K

Aug 24

8:30

GBP

Revised GDP q/q

-0.7%

8:30

GBP

Prelim Business Investment q/q

1.9%

12:30

USD

Core Durable Goods Orders m/m

-1.1%

12:30

USD

Durable Goods Orders m/m

1.6%

13:00

EUR

Belgium NBB Business Climate

-11.3

Click here for updated Crude Oil News.

Originally posted here