EUROPEAN COMMODITIES UPDATE: Crude underpinned pre-Lunar NY, gold mirrors Dollar action

Analysis details (09:48)

• WTI and Brent Mar’23 futures are firmer on the session – buoyed by a rosier demand outlook after China moved away from its zero-COVID policy, and with the world’s second-largest economy heading into the Lunar New Year – often described as the single largest annual human migration, and in turn, expected to be supportive for the complex travel demand perspective. The overall market mood on Friday morning is somewhat cautious following punchy geopolitical commentary from Russia, whilst SNB’s Chairman also warned of second rounds of inflation. On the OPEC+ front, comments yesterday from the Saudi Foreign Minister suggested Saudi is engaging with Russia on keeping oil prices stable, according to Bloomberg – which follows commentary from Russian Deputy PM Novak yesterday who posited that Russia is not discussing with OPEC+ the possibility of production cuts. All-in-all, oil-specific commentary has been light during the European morning thus far but crude prices remain underpinned, with WTI Mar north of USD 81/bbl (vs low 80.68/bbl) and its Brent counterpart around USD 87/bbl (vs low 86.14/bbl).


• Over to metals, spot gold is choppy in a ~USD 15 range as the yellow metal moves in tandem with the Dollar, with spot gold around the middle of a USD 1,937.50-1,923.29/oz range at the time of writing. Base metals are somewhat mixed amid the indecisive Dollar and cautious market mood, but 3M LME copper is flat around USD 9,300/t after rising some USD 1,000/t over 15 calendar days – with the red metal buoyed by Chinese demand following the nation’s reopening.

20 Jan 2023 - 09:50- MetalsEU Research- Source: Newsquawk