Shocks abound through the markets as some polls show that Donald Trump is leading Hillary Clinton causing gyrations across the market place. The worries about a Trump presidency sent stocks lower, making it harder for oil to rally. Uncertainty over Trump’s policies seems to make more traders nervous versus keeping to the Hillary Clinton status quo that has not allowed the economy to grow at its potential.
But it was not just stocks and oil. We saw gold futures spike on safe-haven buying. Doubts about an OPEC production deal are high and worries of a stock market sell off is hitting oil demand.
Asian stock markets were lower as well adding to fears and a massive 9.3-million-barrel increase in crude supply per the American Petroleum Institute shook traders even as gasoline supply fell by 3.58 million barrels and distillates by 3.13 million barrels. The rebound in stocks comes as refiners are in maintenance but product drops show that demand remains strong.
Products gave back sharp Colonial Pipeline explosion related gains after the company said that they would restart the pipeline on Saturday. Yet we will still see a huge impact on supply in the meantime and we could still see spot shortages and higher prices on the retail level. On top of that, back in September Colonial had to delay the restart a couple of times.
Weakness in the crude oil market did not help natural gas that is struggling to deal with warm weather on the front end but a possible structural issue over the winter. After record demand by power plants this summer, the winter looks scary from the supply standpoint as a record storage might be offset from higher exports and record demand if winter ever gets here.