EUROPEAN COMMODITIES UPDATE: Crude eyes a retest of yesterday's highs

Analysis details (10:50)

• Crude benchmarks are firmer on the session, with upside just shy of 1.0% at best, though both WTI and Brent remain shy of yesterday’s and by extension recent peaks. Thus far, specific newsflow has been relatively limited.  WTI is holding within a USD 74.90-76.08/bbl range and circa. USD 0.40/bbl shy of yesterday’s best.


• The IEA’s OMR rounded off the monthly updates and saw the agency lift its 2022 and 2023 demand forecasts to 2.3mln and 1.7mln BPD respectively; an increase which differs with the OPEC MOMR which left its forecasts unchanged and the EIA STEO which saw a cut to the 2023 demand view. Prior to this, the weekly private inventory release saw an unexpected headline build of 7.8mln, vs the expected 3.6mln draw. While the internals printed as-expected builds, but with magnitudes varied and either side of forecasts.


• On the gas price cap front, developments have been essentially non-existent after yesterday’s gathering ended without a final agreement, as such attention turns to a meeting on Thursday before Energy Ministers reconvene next week. The latest on the price cap has, according to Euractiv, some nations pushing for a cap at the EUR 160-220MWh area; a figure which is below the EU’s initial EUR 275/MWh proposal, though does chime with the views of some nations in recent weeks and reports that a recent draft had a significant lowering of the trigger price.


• Moving to metals, spot gold and silver are little changed overall, failing to derive any real traction from the general pullback in equity performance after yesterday’s CPI-induced gains. Currently, spot gold is holding steady above the USD 1800/oz mark and as such is well within Tuesday’s USD 1778-1824/oz range.

14 Dec 2022 - 10:48- MetalsResearch Sheet- Source: Newsquawk