Daily Oil Fundamentals

Middle East Incursions Throw Oil a Lifeline

01 Aug 2024

Middle East Incursions Throw Oil a Lifeline

Such is the world that we live in that state sponsored murder is measured in geopolitical risk to markets rather than any outrage at cross border assassinations. Whether or not this proves to be the case in the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, in Iran will no doubt come to light, but such incidents remind the market on how it should not take the Middle East as a contained issue.

Daily Oil Fundamentals

Everything the Bullish Heart Desires

31 Jul 2024

Everything the Bullish Heart Desires

The names and words such as Iran, Israel, Hamas, assassination, and dead in the same headline usually stimulates the conditional reflexes of any trader worth his or her salt leading to short-covering or even allocating some money to oil as a hedge against escalation and retaliation, which might adversely affect oil production from the region. It is the killing of a Hamas leader on Iranian soil that led to the jump in oil prices yesterday morning.

Daily Oil Fundamentals

Recession Fears and the Chinese Economy

30 Jul 2024

Recession Fears and the Chinese Economy

The horrendous attack in the Golan Heights over the weekend together with the Ukrainian drone strike on an oil depot in Russia’s Kursk region only provided a brief price support as the new week kicked off. The plausibly rigged Venezuelan election where the incumbent was declared winner leading to security forces clashing with opposition supporters, and which probably will entail renewed US sanctions on the country’s oil exports also failed to provide substantial upside push and so did the planned US Department of Energy purchase of 4.65 million bbls of crude oil in the fourth quarter of the year to replenish SPR.