The Jan’25 Brent futures contract weakened this morning from $75.10/bbl at 07:00 GMT down to $74.50/bbl at 10:25 GMT (time of writing). Crude oil prices weakened amid the unveiling of China’s $1.4 trillion stimulus package. Chinese officials neglected to announce additional measures to boost domestic demand, potentially disappointing markets according to a Financial Times report. In the news today, Petrobras reported a 22% increase in its Q3’24 net profit at $5.7 billion. This was partly due to several operational milestones including the start of oil production at Petrobras’ Mero-3 platform with a capacity of 180kb/d and at their FPSO Maria Quiteria with a capacity of 100kb/d. In other news, Citigroup claimed a Trump presidency may be net bearish for crude prices on higher domestic production and tariffs. Meanwhile, Standard Chartered said US producers won’t necessarily heed Trump’s call for more drilling. Finally, the UN Human Rights Office stated that women and children account for nearly 70% of fatalities it has verified in the Gaza war thus far, condemning what it called a systematic violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law, as per Reuters. At the time of writing, the Jan/Feb’25 and Jan/Jul’25 Brent futures spreads stand at $0.32/bbl and $1.27/bbl, respectively.
