Different factors affecting oil price currently


All sorts of influences on the oil price at the moment and in a number of different directions. On the demand side, tomorrows manufacturing numbers from China will be closely watched, the EU continues to look distinctly groggy and the G20 meeting in Sydney yesterday described those economies as being in ‘stagnation’, super Mario speaks later today. On the supply side most numbers point to plenty of crude around but Libya is still around 150/- b/d off its recent peak at about 710/- b/d.

The technical side of things is looking slightly better with half decent support being established at around these levels but don’t forget that WTI expires tonight and as usual, anything might happen. However the CFTC figures on Friday showed that the speculators were upping their long positions, this time by 24/- lots after 16/- last week making the first indication of trying to find the bottom. The news from Exxon about Arctic drilling (below) may have just got one or two crude bulls excited after a bad quarter.

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