EUROPEAN COMMODITIES UPDATE: Crude climbs and LME Copper eclipses USD 9k

Analysis details (10:45)

• WTI and Brent have experienced a firmer start to the mid-week session, with the benchmarks posting upside of around USD 0.30/bbl within relatively narrow ranges that keeps the complex within WTD and recent parameters. Newsflow explicitly for crude has been minimal, with the morning’s upside seemingly occurring alongside a bid in the equity space – upside which occurred without a fresh fundamental driver.


• Last night’s private inventory data posted a sizeable and unexpected headline build of 14.9mln, which the internals all increasing as well though by much more modest magnitudes, a release which sparked modes pressure in the crude benchmarks. Today’s more widely followed EIA release is expected to feature a headline crude draw of 2.24mln.


• In terms of newsflow, the focus has largely been on geopolitics with the Russian Kremlin saying there have hardly been any cases of the oil price caps being used yet, following reports by Bloomberg that the cap is costing Russia some USD 170mln/day. Elsewhere, fighting remains intends in Ukraine’s Soledar with reports differing a touch between Russia and Ukraine as to who the momentum is with. On this, the Russian Rights Commissioner says important ceasefire proposals have been made during her meeting with Turkish and Ukrainian colleagues in Turkey – details on this remain light and we await an indication as to Ukraine’s view of these proposals.


• Moving to metals, where the standout mover has been LME Copper which eclipsed the USD 9k mark in an extension of yesterday’s price action after fairly contained/rangebound APAC trade for base metals. More broadly, spot gold is modestly firmer and resides towards the top-end of a USD 1872-1886/oz range, which is a fresh multi-month high leaving the figure itself as resistance before the May 2022 USD 1909/oz peak.

11 Jan 2023 - 10:45- MetalsEU Research- Source: Newsquawk