DOE Crude Oil, Distillates & Gasoline Inventories - Small Mixed Deviations

This afternoon of Thursday February 23rd 2012 at 16:00 GMT (11:00 EST) the weekly Department of Energy's Inventory figures were released.. This is normally reported weekly on Wednesdays at 15:30 GMT (10:30 EST) but because Monday was a holiday in the USA because of Presidents day it get moved to Thursday a half hour later because the EIA Natural Gas is normally reported at 10:30. Normally when there is so much energy supply data coming out within 30 minutes it is more risky than usual. Anyway today did not have very big deviations and they were mixed with Crude and Distillates reporting a build but a draw in Gasoline.

Here is the data:

DOE U.S. Crude Oil Inventories
Estimates- Median: +1350k Average: +760k Range: -2000k to +2500k
Actual: +1633k Prior: -171k No Revision

DOE U.S. Distillates Inventories
Estimates- Median: -1500k Average: -785k Range: -2500k to +2000k
Actual: -208k Prior: -2867k No Revision

DOE U.S. Gasoline Inventories
Estimates- Median: +250k Average: +35k Range: -1500k to +1900k
Actual: -649k Prior: +400k No Revision

DOE U.S. Refinery Utilization
Estimates- Median: -0.5% Average: -0.23% Range: -1.00% to +0.5%
Actual: +1.5% Prior: +1.2% No Revision

DOE Cushing OK Crude Inventory
Actual: -315k Prior: +1990k No Revision

DOE Crude Oil Implied Demand
Actual: +14675 Prior: +14599

DOE Distillate Implied Demand
Actual: +4447.7 Prior: +4934.6

DOE Gasoline Implied Demand
Actual: +9244.1 Prior: +8723.4 No Revision

EIA Natural Gas Storage Change - Higher Print leads to drop in Nattie but stock don't follow

This afternoon of Thursday February 23rd 2012 at 15:30 GMT (10:30 EST) the Natural Gas Storage Change number was released from the EIA.

Here is the data:

EIA Natural Gas Storage Change
Estimates- Median: -170 Average: -164 Range: -185 to -125
Actual: -166 Prior: -127 No Revisions

German IFO - Rumor of higher number leads to rally, prints higher

This morning of February 23rd at 9:00 GMT (4:00 EST) the IFO figures were released from Germany. There was a rumor of a better number during the early European open and this lead the Euro to gain during the morning leading into the release. There were Middle-Eastern names seen buying the Euro but also some barrier protection at 1.3300 the round figure. The number was indeed higher, but not really by that much, this one is good to trade on a deviation of about +/- 1.2 and we didn't get that much higher than the median analsyst estimates. So this could have been a buy-the-rumour/sell-the-news setup, but actually price managed to continue on up even after the release, despite all the movement before the news. Alot of bidders and once the barrier option broke then further upside was attaing. However 1.3350 the mid-handle was frontrun, barrier protection again perhaps?, or just market-makers protecting the next hedging level....interesting anyhow. Anyhow we had resistance marked from 1.3340-50 so rode it down to 1.3270 as New York opened.

Here is the data:

German IFO - Business Climate
Estimates- Median: +108.8 Average: +109.0 Range: +108.0 to +111.0
Actual: +109.6 Prior: +108.3 No Revision

German IFO - Current Assessment
Estimates- Median: +116.5 Average: +116.5 Range: +115.0 to +118.0
Actual: +117.5 Prior: +116.3 No Revision

German IFO - Expectations
Estimates- Median: +102.0 Average: +102.0 Range: +100.4 to +104.5
Actual: +102.3 Prior: +100.9 No Revision

Here is the 1 minute chart of EURUSD:

and here is the 1 minute chart of EURJPY