Crude Surges As non-OPEC Producers Agree Oil Output Cut
Crude oil prices surged a huge $3 dollars or 5% higher at the Asian open with Brent briefly trading north of $57 and WTI above $54 a barrel before pulling back slightly.
Crude oil prices surged a huge $3 dollars or 5% higher at the Asian open with Brent briefly trading north of $57 and WTI above $54 a barrel before pulling back slightly.
For obvious reasons, all the focus is on the OPEC meeting. As we pointed out the possibility yesterday, oil prices have bounced back very strongly today on renewed hopes that oil ministers will, after all, be able to hammer out a deal later on to limit crude production.
After months of uncertainty and speculation you would think there will be some clarity about the crude oil situation just days ahead of Wednesday’s OPEC meeting. Well, you would be wrong. In fact, very wrong.
Crude oil, like many other commodities and markets are present, continues to remain rangebound with the bullish momentum of earlier in the month now waning.
Crude prices jumped in reaction to the latest weekly US crude stockpiles data but then quickly went into reverse gear, before bounce back once again.
Oil prices have been extremely volatile of late, without making any significant progress in either direction. The long and short of it is that the stream of mostly negative news has helped to halt the recent rally, while ahead of this month’s informal meeting of the OPEC in Algeria not many people will want to be betting boldly on an oil price plunge. Therefore consolidation is the dominant theme in
This morning’s IEA supply report has suggested demand would remains weak into 2017, and with a downward revision to its demand forecast, this has added a bearish tone to oil prices once again, with the WTI contract for October trading lower at $45.27 at time of writing. The IEA see the forecast for 2016 falling by 100k bpd to 1.3 mln bpd.
Over the past week and a half, crude oil prices have been on a rollercoaster ride. Within the large ranges, the force of gravity has generally worked against bullish speculators after the 3-week rally ended in mid-August when Brent hit $51 and WTI reached $49 a barrel again.
Oil prices swung wildly into the positive territory yesterday. The rally eventually came to a halt around the $50 handle for Brent and $48 for WTI, and both contracts have been trending lower from these levels until an hour or so ago.
This week saw data from the UK surprise positively and the severally-oversold pound bounced back sharply, while the dollar fell across the board as the Fed watered down rate hike expectations in the minutes of the FOMC’s last meeting and after some weakness in US data was observed, causing the EUR/USD to climb to its best level since 24 June.