After a relatively stable morning, price action in the Nov’24 Brent futures contract saw weakness and volatility this afternoon. Initially oscillating between high $73 and $74/bbl handles from 12:00 to 17:00 BST, price action then plummeted at 17:18 BST by 58c down to $73.23/bbl at 17:25 BST (time of writing). In the news today, EIA data released at 15:30 BST today for the week ending 20 Sep showed that US crude oil inventories fell by 4.47 mb, or more than expected and about commensurate with yesterday’s API figure. The decline was greater than the draw in the previous week, when crude stocks fell by 1.6 mb. In other news, according to Reuters, economists at Standard Chartered and HSBC have doubted the efficacy of the Chinese central bank’s stimulus package, claiming that China’s new monetary policies fail to target persistently weak consumer demand. Finally, Libyan factions have reached a preliminary agreement to appoint a governor and deputy governor of the Central Bank, as per Bloomberg, potentially marking the first step towards Libyan crude oil exports increasing. At the time of writing, the front month (Nov/Dec’24) and six-month (Nov/May’25) Brent futures spreads are at $0.59/bbl and $1.29/bbl, respectively.
