Equities and the Economy:

• Stocks fall for 6th time out of 9.
• Yield on 10 year Treasury lowest since November.

It’s been like Chinese water torture lately for equities. Drip, drip, drip lower. Yesterday the indexes closed lower for the 6th session out of 9 with the Dow off 59 points to 20,592, the S&P 500 down 9 points to finish at 2,345 and the Nasdaq losing 32 points, 0.5%, to 5,836. You regular readers know I’m a “glass is half full” kind of person so here’s the good news. Even with these losses the S&P is only 2.5% from its all-time high posted in March.

Geopolitics is definitely being felt in the market. When investors get nervous they head toward safe haven assets and that’s exactly what’s going on now. U.S. Treasury bills are one of the safest assets and they’re being bought up. Evidence: the 10 year T-bill yield closed yesterday at its lowest rate since November. Also playing into this is the long holiday weekend with investors playing it conservatively, especially with talk that North Korea may test a nuclear weapon this weekend. Saturday is the “Day of the Sun.” the 105th anniversary of the birth of North Korean founder Kim II-sung.

Regarding fundamental economic news, the only significant report was the Labor Department stating import prices were up 4.2% y-o-y. That’s inflation.

This morning caution prevails. The Dow is down 16.

Oil

• Prices close lower for the first time in 7 sessions.
• U.S. oil exports skyrocket y-o-y.

Despite a bullish API report Tuesday evening, oil prices snapped a 6 day winning streak yesterday with WTI closing 29¢ lower at $53.11. Brent fell 37¢ to $55.86. The pause in rising prices seems to be linked to evidence that U.S. oil production is rapidly rising. Further evidence of this is the fact that U.S oil exports are 57% greater than the whole of 2016.

Regarding the OPEC production cuts, its members have been amazingly compliant. I mean amazingly! Whereas for decades OPEC members cheated on their quotas, this time around it’s different. Averaging multiple sources show that OPEC members cut production in March to 20.757 million bpd. This compares to the quota of 29.804 million bpd. I never expected this level of compliance!

This morning the oil market is sedate with WTI up 13¢.

Courtesy of MDA Information Systems LLC

Natural Gas

• Prices rise marginally.
• EIA storage report out today.

In a quiet day of trading natural gas rose 3.7¢ closing at $3.187. Prices in the cash market didn’t move much. Although we’re in the low-load shoulder season, the longer term forecasts (30-60 day) are showing above normal temperatures which would elevate natural gas demand for natural gas for electric generation. I guarantee you traders have noted that.

This morning the EIA will release its weekly storage report. The market is looking for an injection of 11 Bcf.

Natty is up 1.9¢ this morning.

Elsewhere

Fun Easter facts*:

1. The tallest chocolate Easter egg was made in Italy in 2011. It stood at 10.39 meters and weighed an astounding 7,200 kg.

2. In the US, only 12 of the 50 states recognize Good Friday as a holiday.

3. The art of painting eggs is called pysanka, which originated in Ukraine. It involves using wax and dyes to color the egg.

4. The term Easter gets its name from Eastre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess who symbolizes the hare and the egg.

5. The exchange or giving of Easter eggs actually dates back to before Easter and the giving of eggs is actually considered a symbol of rebirth in many cultures.

6. There used to be a tradition churches observed that resembled the game of “hot potato.” The priest would toss a hardboiled egg to one of the choir boys. The boys would toss the egg amongst themselves and when the clock struck 12, whomever had the egg was the winner and got to keep the egg.

7. Peep peep… did you know Americans buy more than 700 million marshmallow Peeps during Easter? This makes Peeps the most popular non-chocolate Easter candy.

8. Americans consume more than 16 million jelly beans during this holiday. That is enough jelly beans to circle the globe not once, not twice, but three times.

9. Are you an ears, arms or tail person? Seventy-six percent of people eat the ears on the chocolate bunny first, 5 percent go for the feet and 4 percent for the tail.

10. During the holiday, more than 90 million chocolate bunnies, 91.4 billion eggs and 700 million Peeps are produced each year in the United States alone.

11. Next to Halloween, Easter is the biggest candy-consuming holiday of the year. Good thing they are almost six months apart, perfect for your yearly dentist check-ups!

12. An estimated $14.7 billion is spent in total for Easter in the US.

13. The Easter egg is said to symbolize and represent joy, celebration and new life.

14. Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Christ; it is the oldest Christian holiday and one of the most important days of the year.

15. Half the states in the United States banned the dyeing of chicks on Easter. However, Florida recently overturned this law and now prevents the dyeing of all animals.

16. Not only did Florida overturn the dyeing of animals, but the state also held the largest Easter egg hunt where 9,753 children searched for 501,000 eggs.

17. The White House of tradition of the Easter Egg Roll started back in 1878, with President Rutherford B. Hayes!

18. Workers in Birmingham, who make the famous Cadbury Creme Egg, produce more than 1.5 million egg delights a year.

19. The idea of the Easter bunny giving candies and eggs is said to have originated in Germany during the middle ages.
* credit to Elite Daily

There will not be a Morning Energy Blog tomorrow. Holiday.