Mohit Jayachandran is breathing a sigh of relief. The 30-year-old engineer with Fluor Daniel, a multinational engineering and project management company in Gurgaon, near India’s capital New Delhi, says he will be having a decent end-of-year vacation this time, after a long year.
Last week was an interesting one for oil traders, with the rally of Monday promising much, only for this move to be snuffed out during the remainder of the week, as the WTI Light Sweet Crude (USO, quote) contract for January closed close to the open at $65.84 per barrel.
As the currency markets pause ahead of the monthly Non Farm Payroll release due later, I thought it would be a good time to revisit the weekly futures charts for some of the major currency pairs, and to step back a little, following a week of significant news items around the world. This helps to contextualize the NFP data, which whilst important, is simply another release in the economic calendar.
To say the last few days have been a roller coaster ride for commodities would be an understatement, with both oil and gold providing some sensational trading opportunities, but for very different reasons. For gold, it was the Swiss referendum over the weekend, and for oil, it was the OPEC meeting in Vienna.
Brent crude oil (BNO, quote) dipped below $70 on to start the week as the commodity continued to free-fall following OPEC’s decision not to implement a cut. The commodity traded at $68.60 at 8:30 GMT on Monday morning as investors looked to economic data for any indication that the global economy could pick up.
Brent crude oil (BNO, quote) was steady above $78 on Thursday as markets prepared for a busy day of economic releases. The commodity traded at $78.06 at 7:45 GMT as investors kept their focus on OPEC’s upcoming meeting and whether or not the cartel would cut output.
Worries about the division between OPEC members remained a major driver of oil prices on Wednesday and drove Brent crude oil (BNO, quote) lower. The commodity traded at $78.73 at 8:45 GMT as investors kept an eye on the cartel’s debate over whether or not to cut supplies at next week’s meeting.
Brent crude (BNO, quote) oil began the week on a low note after GDP data helped confirm suspicions of a global slowdown. The commodity traded at $78.19 at 8:15 GMT, following surprising reports that Japan had fallen into a recession.
For oil traders and speculators hitting the sell button has become almost automatic, as the heavily bearish tone for the commodity shows no signs of abating just yet, with another solid move lower yesterday offering low risk trading opportunities once again.
It was a day of muted trading for oil yesterday, with both the US and Canada observing a public holiday in honor of their war veterans, and as a result the Wednesday oil inventories report is now scheduled for Thursday.
