EUROPEAN COMMODITY UPDATE: Crude backpedals and gold loses some shine as geopolitical-premia dissipates

Analysis details (10:46)

WTI and Brent are under notable pressure this morning as the geopolitical updates take a positive turn ahead of meetings between the US and Russian defence ministers today and the Secretary of State/Foreign Ministers next week in Europe, timings TBC. As such, price action has been one-way this morning and the benchmarks lie near session lows of USD 87.46/bbl and USD 90.12/bbl for WTI and Brent respectively. Today's pressure has eroded all of the week’s upside and taken us back in proximity to the troughs of last week; albeit, crude does remain notably elevated in the broader picture. As outlined within the equity update, focus for the session is on any developments around the US-Russia meetings, particularly in relation to the security proposals. Technically, Futures Techs draws focus to the USD 90.07/bbl mark in Brent seeing as we have dropped well below support at USD 92.11/bbl; writing that further downside brings a potential retrace to USD 84.92/bbl into play. For metals, spot gold’s session high of USD 1902/oz occurred prior to the above, constructive, developments and as such the eclipse of USD 1900/oz proved brief; also hindered by USD strength and touted resistance around USD 1905/oz. Elsewhere, base metals remain under heightened focus amid further commentary out of China where the NDRC has issued rules to ensure supply of and stability to prices of key raw materials, mentioning iron explicitly within this.

18 Feb 2022 - 10:45- MetalsResearch Sheet- Source: Newsquawk