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 traded in a fairly tight range this week, with little in the way of supportive action and data.

Geopolitical rhetoric toned down and supply disruptions and production were non issues. Global growth continued to shrink with word from China that their GDP may fall to 7.4%, the UK sunk deeper into a recession and the US GDP fell to 1.5%

Date

Last

Open

High

Low

Change %

Jul 27, 2012

90.13

89.17

90.45

89.14

1.09%

Jul 26, 2012

89.16

88.77

90.47

88.07

0.44%

Jul 25, 2012

88.77

88.22

89.35

86.87

0.63%

Jul 24, 2012

88.21

88.00

89.04

87.45

0.26%

Jul 23, 2012

87.98

91.25

91.36

87.81

-3.59%

The thought of stimulus from the Fed, the BoJ, the BoE and the ECB have propped up prices, with central banks making efforts around the global demand may increase.

The EIA reported higher than expected inventories and a drop in demand, which was a negative for oil, but the weakening dollar and the pledged from the ECB to save the monetary union added support in this weeks trading.

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 July 23-27 actual v. forecast for Euro, GPB, the Franc, and USD

Date

Currency

Event

Actual

Forecast

Previous

Jul 24

EUR

French Flash Manufacturing PMI

43.6

45.6

45.2

EUR

French Flash Services PMI

50.2

47.7

47.9

EUR

German Flash Manufacturing PMI

43.3

45.3

45.0

EUR

German Flash Services PMI

49.7

50.1

49.9

EUR

Flash Manufacturing PMI

44.1

45.3

45.1

EUR

Flash Services PMI

47.6

47.3

47.1

GBP

BBA Mortgage Approvals

26.3K

31.4K

29.6K

USD

Flash Manufacturing PMI

51.8

52.1

52.5

Jul 25

EUR

German Ifo Business Climate

103.3

104.8

105.2

GBP

Prelim GDP q/q

-0.7%

-0.2%

-0.3%

GBP

CBI Industrial Order Expectations

-6

-11

-11

EUR

Belgium NBB Business Climate

-11.3

-13.5

-13.2

USD

New Home Sales

350K

372K

382K

USD

Crude Oil Inventories

2.7M

-0.1M

-0.8M

Jul 26

EUR

GfK German Consumer Climate

5.9

5.9

5.8

EUR

M3 Money Supply y/y

3.2%

2.9%

3.1%

USD

Core Durable Goods Orders m/m

-1.1%

0.1%

0.8%

USD

Unemployment Claims

353K

381K

388K

USD

Durable Goods Orders m/m

1.6%

0.4%

1.6%

USD

Pending Home Sales m/m

-1.4%

0.6%

5.4%

Jul 27

EUR

German Prelim CPI m/m

0.4%

0.4%

-0.1%

CHF

KOF Economic Barometer

1.43

1.24

1.15

EUR

Spanish Unemployment Rate

24.6%

24.7%

24.4%

USD

Advance GDP q/q

1.5%

1.5%

1.9%

USD

Revised UoM Consumer Sentiment

72.3

72.0

72.0

Historical:

Highest: 114.81 on May 02, 2011

Average: 88.78 over this period

Lowest: 67.17 on May 25, 2010

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

Date

Time

Currency

Event

Forecast

Previous

Jul 30

30th-31st

GBP

Nationwide HPI m/m

0.8%

-0.6%

7:00

EUR

Spanish Flash GDP q/q

-0.3%

8:30

GBP

Net Lending to Individuals m/m

1.3B

10:00

GBP

CBI Realized Sales

42

23:01

GBP

GfK Consumer Confidence

-29

Jul 31

6:45

EUR

French Consumer Spending m/m

0.4%

7:55

EUR

German Unemployment Change

7K

9:00

EUR

CPI Flash Estimate y/y

2.4%

9:00

EUR

Unemployment Rate

11.1%

Aug 1

1st-8th

GBP

Halifax HPI m/m

1.0%

7:15

EUR

Spanish Manufacturing PMI

41.1

7:45

EUR

Italian Manufacturing PMI

44.6

8:30

GBP

Manufacturing PMI

48.6

Aug 2

7:00

EUR

Spanish Unemployment Change

-98.9K

7:15

CHF

Retail Sales y/y

6.2%

7:30

CHF

SVME PMI

48.1

8:30

GBP

Construction PMI

48.2

11:00

GBP

Asset Purchase Facility

375B

11:00

GBP

Official Bank Rate

0.50%

0.50%

11:45

EUR

Minimum Bid Rate

0.75%

0.75%

12:30

EUR

ECB Press Conference

Aug 3

8:30

GBP

Services PMI

51.3

9:00

EUR

Retail Sales m/m

0.6%

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)

Click here a current Crude Oil Chart.

Originally posted here