The Dec’24 Brent futures contract continued to weaken this morning, falling from $74.80/bbl at 08:25 BST to briefly dropping below $74/bbl at 10:20 BST. While the benchmark crude futures contract found support here, it fell to $73.88/bbl at 11:35 BST (time of writing). While the market continues to be concerned about the risk of escalating conflict in the Middle East, reports that Israel will not be attacking Iranian oil and nuclear supplies have calmed the geopolitical risk premium noted in the futures contract last week. The market will now turn its attention to 17 Oct’s announcement of US oil inventories for the week ending 11 Oct by the EIA. In other news, China may raise a further 6 trillion yuan ($850 billion) from special treasury bonds over three years to stimulate its economy, as per sources of Caixin Global, following Finance Minister Lan Foan’s comment that Beijing will significantly increase its debt last Saturday. Finally, at the time of writing, the front-month and six-month Brent futures spreads stand at $0.35/bbl and $1.47/bbl, respectively.
