Oil slipped below $69 a barrel as traders assessed an uneven recovery in global demand.
Global benchmark Brent has struggled for momentum after failing to break above $70 a barrel on Wednesday. While major crude importer India is battling a record coronavirus wave that’s sapped economic activity, there are signs of rising oil consumption elsewhere. Spain’s Cepsa is restarting a processing unit that was previously idled, while U.S. plants are running at five-year average levels for the first time since the pandemic began.
Oil has rallied in 2021 as key economies including the U.S. and China rebound from the impact of the pandemic, fanning energy demand. The strength in crude forms part of a broad advance in raw materials, with the Bloomberg Commodity Spot Index surging to the highest level in almost a decade. Still, the outbreak in India has rapidly worsened since the start of April, and the country is now reporting more than 350,000 cases every day.
“Prices flirt with the $70 mark, but fail to push higher,” said Hans van Cleef, senior energy economist at ABN Amro. “From a fundamental perspective we have demand uncertainties and a lot of OPEC+ spare capacity to meet any rise in demand.”
Elsewhere, in Japan a state of emergency brought on by Covid will be extended until the end of the month, local media reported. The country’s capital, Tokyo, had wanted to extend it in a bid to stem a surge in infections ahead of hosting the Olympics from July.
Prices have also run into technical hurdles in recent days, trading above their upper Bollinger bands intraday, before subsequently retreating. That could prove to be a sign that the current rally may be due for a pause.
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May 06, 2021 at 08:18PM
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Oil slides amid uneven recovery in global consumption - Houston Chronicle
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