Brent crude saw yet another positive session on Thursday and is set to post gains in a third consecutive week. Brent even mostly ignored the fact that the Greek political agreement was not rubber-stamped by Eurogroup Finance Ministers. Today, the IEA released its new Oil Market Report. The agency revised its outlook for an increase in oil demand to the downside by 0.3 million barrels per day and hence took the similar step as the OPEC yesterday. Moreover, the OPEC’s report
confirmed the figure on Libya’s oil output released earlier this week by EIA saying that it reached about 1000 thousand barrels per day in January.
Brent price somehow eases today in early trading. Besides the stronger dollar, the slump in China’s imports in January weighs on sentiment (although import of crude was the third highest on a record). Thus, Brent is currently seen at 117.56 USD per barrel.
Base Metals
Copper gave up some previous gains today in early trading as China reported surprisingly low overall imports in January. However, China’s General Administration of Customs said that copper imports remained above 400 thousand tonnes in January (+ 13.6% Y/Y) despite the week-long Lunar New Year holiday.
Unlike the end of previous year, SHFE – LME arbitrage window has been skewed in favour of LME in January. This might put some downward pressure on China’s copper imports in months ahead.