Oil futures: Crude prices move sideways in range-bound trading
Quantum Commodity Intelligence – Crude oil futures in Monday were little changed following another session of choppy trading, although markets remained largely rangebound amid conflicting price signals.
Front-month May24 ICE Brent futures were trading at $82.02/b (1815 GMT), compared to the day's range of $81.08-$82.75/b and Friday’s settle of $82.08/b.
At the same time Apr24 NYMEX WTI was trading at $77.70/b, versus Friday’s settle of $78.01/b.
Markets have been torn between the demand outlook against Middle East geopolitical tensions, as benchmarks continued to trade in a relatively tight range this month.
“Crude oil’s current lack of momentum continues to support our view that Brent and WTI will likely remain rangebound for a while longer, an outlook that was given additional credence this past week with WTI trading softer following several failed attempts to break above $80/b while Brent has yet to challenge key resistance near $85/b," said Ole S Hansen, Head of Commodity Strategy at Saxo Group.
Friday’s US jobs data showed an increase of 275,000 versus expectations for 200,000, but this was offset as the unemployment rate rose to just over a two-year high of 3.9%.
Oil markets earlier found some support after the Dollar Index slipped to around 102.70 points, down from nearly 104 points one week ago.
China
Recent data from China has also been relatively lackluster after Beijing announced last week a 2024 growth target of 5%, but without an accompanying stimulus package, which many analysts think is necessary to achieve the target.
Latest data Monday showed China’s consumer price index (CPI) increased 0.7% on the year in February, ending a run of four declines, but the producer price index (PPI) dropped for the 17th month in a row, down by 2.7%.
The situation for Red Sea tanker traffic remains tense after three crew members were killed last week following a Houthi strike on the True Confidence, leading global transportation unions to call for a halt on commercial shipping around Yemen.
Meanwhile, Hamas on Sunday said the pre-Ramadan ceasefire talks had failed because Israel would not commit to a more permanent ceasefire, while Israel accused Hamas of stalling in a bid to inflame violence across the region during Ramadan.
