has reverberated across global assets, with selling in oil gathering pace as firms tried to limit their exposure in the options market.
“Prices are likely to remain volatile given the dimensions of uncertainties over Fed actions, US banking turmoil, and China’s recovery,” Citigroup analysts Francesco Martoccia and Ed Morse said in a note., and investors will be watching to see if the rout draws a response from the group and its allies. However, traders are abandoning bets that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates amid the banking turmoil.
Further oil price gains may be limited in the near term, with OPEC this week forecasting a modest surplus in the second quarter, a typical period of soft demand before the summer. The International Energy Agency on Wednesday said that the market was already in surplus on Russian output. A long-term timespread for global benchmark Brent has weakened during the recent selloff, narrowing to $US2.94 a barrel in backwardation on Wednesday. That compares with $US5.26 at the end of last week.US crude inventories expanded by 1.55 million barrels last week, according to data from the Energy Information Administration on Wednesday. Net total oil exports, including crude and refined products, jumped to 3.5 million barrels a day. That figure has been surpassed only once since 1990.
“We seem to be walking on thin ice right now, with the fragile risk environment still trying to stabilise from theMore about the Credit Suisse crisis: