The latest Market Talks covering Energy markets. Published exclusively on Dow Jones Newswires throughout the day.

1513 ET - U.S. natural gas futures snap a four-session winning streak, settling back below $4 as a late-season cold spell forecast for the Midwest and East loses some of its bite, and the market looks toward what's likely to be a third straight weekly storage build. Another inventory build "will chop another big chunk off the deficit to last year and the five-year average," Mizuho's Robert Yawger says in a note. It "could even set the stage for a switch back to a surplus to the five year in coming weeks."The Nymex front month settles down 4.1% at $3.951/mmBtu. (anthony.harrup@wsj.com)

By Matt Grossman

As a new round of tariffs bears down, a Fed official cautioned Tuesday that uncertainty is leaving some businesses "frozen" or "paralyzed."

A blistering pace of policy changes has companies and consumers facing far more uncertainty than at the start of the year, Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin said in a speech.

He compared the backdrop to a thick fog that makes driving dangerous.

"It's not an everyday 'forecasting is hard' type of fog," Barkin said. "It's a zero visibility, pull over and turn on your hazards type of fog."

Like a car that has pulled over, the Fed is waiting for more clarity before it acts, Barkin said, citing the central bank's decision to hold interest rates steady at its two latest meetings.

"With the labor market still solid and inflation still above target, our moderately restrictive stance is a good place to be," Barkin said.

This item is part of a Wall Street Journal live coverage event. The full stream can be found by searching P/WSJL (WSJ Live Coverage).

1316 ET - Crude futures turn lower in choppy trade, retreating from five-week highs reached yesterday after President Trump said he could sanction buyers of Russian oil. "The market's response has been fairly muted as participants partially consider this as a mechanism to accelerate the ceasefire and ending the [Russia-Ukraine] war," Janiv Shah of Rystad Energy says in a note. The threat also coincides with OPEC+ starting to gradually unwind 2.2 million barrels a day of output cuts with an estimated 138,000 b/d this month. "The unwinding of OPEC+'s cuts has somewhat mitigated the reduced flow threat as OPEC+ spare capacity exists above 5 million barrels per day," Shah says. India and China are the main buyers of Russian oil. WTI is off 0.4% at $71.21 a barrel, and Brent is down 0.3% at $74.54 a barrel. (anthony.harrup@wsj.com)

1056 ET - Canada's ban on single-use plastics is already in legal limbo. Now, the Trump administration has identified the policy as a major foreign-trade barrier, in a new report from the US Trade Representative. The regulations "would create negative impacts for trade," the USTR says, adding it would thwart agriculture exports to Canada. The administration encourages Ottawa to use a "science-based approach" to address plastic pollution. The ban is on hold after a Federal Court of Canada ruling 16 months ago judged the Liberal government's plastics policy as unreasonable and unconstitutional, adding officials failed to provide evidence that items such as straws and stir sticks are toxic, as per cabinet order. US lobby groups, chemical maker Dow and Exxon subsidiary Imperial Oil supported the court challenge. (Paul.Vieira@wsj.com; @paulvieira)

1011 ET - U.S. natural gas futures give back some of yesterday's weather-driven gains, while holding above the $4 level reclaimed last week. Near-term forecasts warmed overnight, while maintaining cold weather into the weekend likely to drive some late-season heating demand. "Seasonally natural gas prices move lower into mid-April and reverse higher beginning in late April into May, however, the latest cold wave will take precedence," BOK Financial's Dennis Kissler says in a note. The Nymex front month is off 1.6% at $4.054/mmBtu. (anthony.harrup@wsj.com)

0941 ET - Oil futures creep higher with bullish implications of threatened U.S. sanctions against Russian oil and tighter enforcement against Iranian crude countered by caution ahead of tomorrow's expected U.S. tariff announcements and their potential impact on economic growth. OPEC+ is scheduled to start the gradual unwinding of 2.2 million barrels a day in output cuts with an estimated 138,000 barrels a day this month, offset by pledges by some members to compensate for previous overproduction. WTI is up 0.2% at $71.61 a barrel, and Brent is 0.1% higher at $74.84 a barrel as the front month switches to June. (anthony.harrup@wsj.com)

0858 ET - The government division of BWX Technologies has a monopoly on the construction and fueling of U.S. Navy nuclear reactors used in submarines and aircraft carriers, Seaport analyst Jeff Campbell says in a research note. The company's relationship with the federal government should remain durable, given BWX's decades of flawless performance and a rising sense of global conflict, the analyst says. The growth potential of the company's commercial division for both its power applications and medical radioisotopes shows that BWX isn't a one-trick pony, Campbell says. The analyst initiates coverage of the company with a buy rating. (dean.seal@wsj.com)

0842 ET - The cost of insuring Israeli sovereign bonds against default using credit default swaps rises to its highest in nearly three months due to the renewed conflict between Israel and Hamas. "Geopolitical tension remains high," Jefferies' Brad Bechtel says in a note. Israel's 5-year credit default swaps rise 1 basis point to 92 basis points, a high last seen on January 17, S&P Global Market Intelligence data show. (miriam.mukuru@wsj.com)

0815 ET - The spread between summer and winter European gas contracts narrowed significantly at the end of March, according to data from Argus Media. The TTF summer 2025 contract was priced 0.0750 euros a megawatt hour above the 2025-26 winter contract as of March 31, a significant narrowing from the 2-euros-a-megawatt-hour spread seen earlier in the month. "Traders are factoring in more and more the likelihood that EU stores will not fill all the way to 90% by the start of November," says Natasha Fielding, head of European gas pricing. "This is actually shifting some risk from the summer into the coming winter; instead of particularly strong summer restocking gas demand, we may see a tighter winter market in which there is less of a storage buffer." The benchmark TTF contract trades 2.4% higher at 41.66 euros a megawatt hour. (giulia.petroni@wsj.com)

0645 ET - Oil prices gain in midday trade, with Brent crude back above $75 a barrel as the market weighs the potential impact of a widening global trade war and U.S. President Trump's threats against Russia and Iran. In midday trade, Brent and WTI are both up 0.5% at $75.13 and $71.84 a barrel, respectively. The contracts settled at five-week highs in the previous trading session, boosted by fears of tightening supplies. "Secondary tariffs against Iran would have the potential to significantly restrict oil supplies," Commerzbank Research's Carsten Fritsch says. "In our opinion, the likelihood of this is higher than in the case of Russia." Still, prices aren't expected to rise much further as OPEC+ starts raising output and Trump prepares to announce a whole new set of tariffs, which could push demand concerns back into focus, according to the commodity analyst. (giulia.petroni@wsj.com)

0528 ET - European natural-gas prices edge lower in early trade as the storage refill season begins. The benchmark Dutch TTF contract falls 0.5% to 40.47 euros a megawatt hour and is down 8.5% on the month. "Withdrawals from storage have moved lower and even reverted to injections in recent days as Europe exits a cold winter," says RBC Capital Markets' Adnan Dhanani. EU storage is 33.7% full, with a target to refill to 90% by Nov 1. "Our modeling continues to suggest that Europe will nonetheless meet the target by capturing a 26% share of the LNG market in the coming months," the analyst says. Meanwhile, LNG demand pressure from China remains weak amid increased gas flows from Russia and continued growth in domestic gas production, according to RBC. (giulia.petroni@wsj.com)

0417 ET - RWE's management will be under pressure to increase shareholder returns after selling a 49% stake in its Thor and Nordseecluster wind projects for 1.4 billion euros, Citi analysts write in a note. The German utility company announced the sale to Norges Bank Investment Management, Norway's sovereign wealth fund,on Monday. The sale is positive for RWE and values the projects at around 2.9 billion euros--almost double what the analysts had expected, they write. The transaction is expected to be completed by the third quarter of the year. Shares trade flat at 33.06 euros and are up nearly 15% over the year to date.(adam.whittaker@wsj.com)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 01, 2025 15:13 ET (19:13 GMT)

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