Crude prices remained pressured, sticking to the 80-82 $/b range, as the possibility of a US SPR release limited prompt tightness. With such growing political pressure and uncertainty, money managers continued to cut their exposure to major futures markets (Brent, WTI). The Brent open interest from financial players declined by 94k since this summer when…
Activity seemed to accelerate in China in October: +3.5% after +3.1% yoy for industrial production and +4.9% after +4.4% yoy for retail sales. In fact, only industrial production returned to normal growth for the month, as the energy supply problems were resolved. But the chart below clearly shows that this is not the case for retail sales,…
Crude prices remained stable, hovering around 83.5 $/b for the January ICE Brent contract. Expectations of a response from the US administration raised uncertainty in the crude oil market, as Biden’s toolbox for limiting the current price rally could be disruptive for sections of the market. If Biden decided to release stocks from the SPR – without…
European gas prices increased yesterday as the hopes of an increase in Russian flows have been dashed. Indeed, Gazprom did not book extra transportation capacity at daily auctions on Sunday, and actually Russian flows remained almost stable yesterday, at 252 mm cm/day. On their side, Norwegian flows were up, averaging 347 mm cm/day, compared to…
No significant news yesterday. US equity markets did find the resources to go a little higher on speculation that Joe Biden may decide to appoint Lail Brainard to replace Jerome Powell as Fed chair. This would probably ensure an even more accommodative bias in monetary policy, but it is unlikely that he would risk destabilising…
