The least expected happened on Friday. The proposed reduction in OPEC+ production was rejected by Russia. It would have taken the combined cut up to 3.6 mbpd from the 2016 level. The proposal, based on the recommendation of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee, pushed for an extra 1.5 mbpd decrease in the group’s production level [...]
Decision Day. Crunch time. Moment of truth. Call it what you will, the oil market is at a critical junction. OPEC and its non-OPEC allies will meet today to finalise a supply response to the mounting coronavirus crisis. This follows yesterday’s gathering of the 13-member OPEC in which it acknowledged the adverse impact of the [...]
There are two key takeaways from the recent market performance. The first one is that central banks’ action is not es effective as hoped and the second one is that the coronavirus epidemic is likely to have a longer-term negative effect on the global economy and oil demand. After the Fed announced its surprise 0.5% [...]
Rarely does a day go by without Donald Trump berating the Federal Reserve for not delivering more monetary easing measures. Yesterday was no different only this time the US President got his wish. The Fed shocked investors with an emergency rate cut of 50 basis points to counteract the impact of the coronavirus. This was [...]
Markets work in mysterious ways. The epidemic that originated from China shows no signs of abating yet risky assets performed one their biggest daily jumps yesterday. The US stock markets strengthened around 5% yesterday and European stock index futures are also on the rise this morning. Oil tracked equities and WTI gained nearly $2/bbl to [...]
Less than two weeks ago Donald Trump boasted of record-breaking highs on US stock indices. Not anymore. Financial markets were gripped last week by a fear factor as concerns over the escalating coronavirus outbreak reached fever pitch. The epidemic in China appears to have peaked but the rest of the world has seen a sharp [...]
The desperate search for clues about the impact of the coronavirus epidemic continues. This search at the moment appears to be futile. It is simply impossible to predict with great confidence what the economic effect of the epidemic will be. All one can do is to take daily or weekly snapshots and try to figure [...]
The impression on the impact of the Covid-19 based on last week’s price movements was as confusing and uncertain as the containment of the virus itself. The general fall in the stock markets and the 3.7% jump in gold suggested that investors remained concerned about the economic implications of the outbreak. The Shanghai Composite index, [...]
Supply issues are irrelevant at the moment. The chairman of the Libyan National Oil Corporation suggested that his country’s production has already fallen to 400,000 bpd from well above 1 mbpd and will plummet to 72,000 bpd soon unless the blockade of its pipelines and export terminals by forces loyal to General Khalifa Haftar are [...]
Oil started the new year on the front foot, albeit only just. Brent and WTI eked out respective gains of 25 cts/bbl and 12 cts/bbl on the first day trading of 2020. Nevertheless, underlying sentiment remains well supported by trade optimism and deeper OPEC-led cuts which took effect at the start of this month. There [...]
