Crude oil and gasoline futures gave back morning gains and were mostly lower at midday Tuesday on likely profit-taking after a string of stronger sessions.
The NYMEX August West Texas Intermediate contract was down 25cts to $83.15/bbl as of noon ET and the September WTI contract was 15cts lower at $82.20/bbl.
The September Brent crude contract was off by 5cts to $86.55/bbl and October Brent was nearly unchanged at $85.70/bbl.
Refined product futures were mixed.
The NYMEX August RBOB contract was 0.5ct lower at $2.5735/gal and September RBOB was off 0.4ct to $2.534/gal.
The NYMEX August ULSD contract, however, was up 1.1cts to $2.626/gal with the September contract 1.3cts higher at $2.6385/gal.
Earlier in the session, potential supply worries related to Hurricane Beryl appeared to give market participants a reason to buy.
The National Hurricane Center said in an 11 a.m. update that the Category 5 storm is expected to continue to move west-northwest across the central Caribbean over the next two days before crossing the Yucatan Peninsula and emerging over the southwestern Gulf of Mexico over the weekend.
Meteorologists said Beryl, the first named hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic storm season, is the earliest Category 5 hurricane on record for the Atlantic basin.
In addition, demand optimism also helped to support the market earlier. According to projections by AAA and the Transportation Security Administration, a record number of Americans are expected to travel by car and air this week for the July 4 holiday.
This content was created by Oil Price Information Service, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. OPIS is run independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
--Reporting by Frank Tang, ftang@opisnet.com; Editing by Jeff Barber, jbarber@opisnet.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
07-02-24 1248ET
