Crude Oil Weekly Outlook for April 04, 2011-April 08, 2011

Crude oil prices rose last week above $107 a barrel, the highest level since September 2008, where the ongoing political tension in the Arab world, a region rich of oil reserves, boosted crude oil prices amid concerns over the supply of oil from Libya mainly, as the saga between Gaddafi troops and rebels backed by Coalition Forces continued.

Meanwhile, we should expect the tensions in the Middle East and North Africa to continue to dominate crude oil movement next week, where the general direction seems to be to the upside, unless of course the situation in Libya changes.

Highlights for this week that will probably affect the Crude Oil direction are:

Tuesday, 14:00. The ISM Non-Manufacturing Composite will be released for the month of March, where the index expanded at 59.7 back in February, and median estimates suggest that services activities continued to expand in March to reach 59.9.

Tuesday, 18:00. The FOMC Minutes will be released, where the FOMC is not expected to change the outlook, since economic activities in the United States remained rather the same, although we expect the Fed to signal an ongoing improvement in economic conditions, while also expressing concerns about rising energy prices.

Wednesday, 14:30. The Department of Energy will release the weekly petroleum status for the week ending April 1, where the prior report showed that crude oil inventories increased by 2.9 million barrels.

Friday, 11:00. Canada will release the jobs report for the month of March, where the net change in employment is expected to show that 31.0K jobs were added in March following the prior added 15.1K jobs in February, while unemployment is expected to drop in March to 7.7% from 7.8% back in February.

(Source: http://www.commoditiesmansion.com/commodities-news/crude-oil-weekly-outlook-for-april-04-2011-april-08-2011/)