Category Archives: Energy

Energy

Commodities Update

Energy, Global Economy, On the cover, Sin categoría

Oil still trending down ($106.8.0 Brent), WTI discount to Brent now at $12/bbl.I have been talking all month about the widening driven by tightness in Brent and ample supplies in US. Brent has stayed strong this week on the drying up of Libyan exports. No such supply issues in the US where crude stocks have risen well above the 5-yr range causing the Brent-WTI spread to widen abruptly. Continue reading Commodities Update →

Commodities Update

Energy, Global Economy, On the cover, Sin categoría

Oil is flat and looking at a weak short term trend sliding between $105-110/bbl Brent.

The short term palliative of a deal in Washington to temporarily address the debt ceiling and budget overcame the potential longer-term implications of reports of constructive dialogue between Iran and the global powers in Geneva which has the potential, given the US’ positive reaction, to see sanctions eased. Clearly there is a long way to go to get to something substantive and Iranian exports will not recover quickly but fall in Iranian’s exports has compensated for poor demand growth and strong US production growth.

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Summary comments from Commodities Investor Day presentations

Energy, Global Economy, On the cover, Sin categoría
A few summary comments from CS commodity day presentations:
Metals:
The entire metals complex is moving lower (in price) and very little of it has to do with weak demand in China, if anything, physical demand looks decent there, particularly in precious, but even copper and ore.  It’s almost all on supply gains for these metals in 2013 and again unfortunately in 2014.  There is simply too much supply coming in.  Continue reading Summary comments from Commodities Investor Day presentations →

Commodities Weekly

Energy, Global Economy, On the cover, Sin categoría

It was a strong week in the oil market as Brent pushed through the $115/bbl to reach the highest level since April last year. Positive macro-economic data, coupled with the increased geopolitical risk premium provided a positive backdrop for the strong gains. In terms of fundamentals, OPEC production continued to slide in January, reportedly reaching the lowest level in 15 months. It is important to note that OPEC production is nearing the official production quota of 30mbpd level where it may stabilise. Similar to reports in December, reduction in production is largely attributed to a well-supplied market. Continue reading Commodities Weekly →