Daily Oil Fundamentals

Oil remains steady, China frustrates and will a wind blow

20 Jul 2023

Oil remains steady, China frustrates and will a wind blow

It appears that markets’ fixation with all that is China this week is not about to go away any time soon. Despite China officials yesterday going on a charm campaign, the 1-year Loan Prime Rate (LPR) was left unchanged this morning in line with this week’s Medium-Lending Facility (MLF). This is hardly the stuff of stimulus that the charm had intimated at and not what investors are looking for. There has been a tweaking of cross-border financing designed to free investment capital and this morning Chinese authorities announce that they will be addressing restrictive mortgage practices aimed at large cities.

Daily Oil Fundamentals

Oil quietly steady, Central Banks have the ball

19 Jul 2023

Oil quietly steady, Central Banks have the ball

It does seem rather poignant that the biggest headline of the week in oil was in fact false and withdrawn. This refers to the ‘flash’ informing us that Saudi Arabia would extend its voluntary cut through December 2024. Nevermind, one might imagine our collective agreeing, at least the US oil reports will give us much to chew over. Those of us expecting some fireworks from the overnight API oil stock report are sorely disappointed as it lands with a bit of a whisper rather than a bang.

Daily Oil Fundamentals

China remains antidote to bulls

17 Jul 2023

China remains antidote to bulls

After improving $3.47/barrel in WTI and $3.28 in Brent to make new highs on Thursday from start of play on Monday, the market is in the process of eroding such hard fought gains and both crudes now sit only some 50c/barrel higher than from the outset of last week. After the US CPI was well received by bulls, aided with protest-inspired closures in Libya and testing towards the vital technical area of the 200-day moving average for both WTI and Brent, a correction ensued and continues today.