EIA Weekly Report -- No Surprises But Distillate Fuel Is Going To Be A Problem For Farmers And Truckers -- March 9, 2022

Distillate fuel: it's gonna be a problem for farmers and truckers. So, what's UNP doing today? Up another $1.25, trading at $254.65, still well below its 52-week high of $270.

The EIA weekly report, link here:

• US crude oil in storage dropped to 411.6 million bbls; 13% below the five-year average.
• days of supply: a more-than-comfortable 27.1 days
• it needs to get below 21 days of supply to even begin to be a concern 
• hey, when that dreaded "demand destruction" kicks in, the number of days of supply will increase significantly
  
• US crude oil decreased by a moderate 1.9 million bbls. Yawn.
• US crude oil imports averaged 6.3 million bbls per day last week; which was an increase of 0.6 million bbls per day from the previous week. Yawn.
• can hardly wait to see next week's numbers after the Biden ban of Russian oil; 
• by the way, the Biden Russian oil ban won't even go into effect until May, 2022.
  
• US refiners are operating at 89.3% -- trending up. Will "we" go above 90% next week. We haven't hit the "9-handle" in a long time. When I say "9-handle" it makes me feel like I know what I'm talking about. I don't. 
• US distillate fuel in storage decreased by 5.2 million bbls; distillate fuel in storage 18% below the five-year average; farmers take note.
• jet fuel supplied was up 35.4% from same four-week period last year;
• gasoline demand graph will be released later today;

Russian crude oil imports, link here:

• December, 2021: 12,569,000 bbls or 405,000 bopd
• December, 2020: 12,898,000 bbls or 429,933 bopd
• December 2019: 21,589,000 bbls or 696,419 bopd
• December 2018: 8,409,000 bbls or 271,258 bopd (no typo) -- the dreaded demand destruction?
• given the right incentives, North Dakota and Saskatchewan Spearfish could probably make up the impending Russian shortfall
  

First group "financial / economic" indicators:

• 10-Year Treasury: link here. Trending toward 2% again. Yield at 1.913%.
  
• DXY: link here. Dollar down almost one percent; now at 98.21. This is not why WTI is selling off. Someone suggested the strong dollar caused WTI to sell off today. The dollar was stronger yesterday, weaker today.
  
• Silver: link here. DOWN over 2%; trading at $26.35.
  
• Gold: link here. WAY DOWN; down over 3%. Trading well below the high of $2,056 yesterday; now trading at $1,991.
  
• CBOE volatility index: link here. Explained at Investopedia.VIX drops 7.2%.

Rod Stewart, an acoustic set, just posted last year: