The front-month Brent futures contract continues to see resistance above $68.50/bbl, hitting this level at 09:45 BST this morning before softening a touch to $68.10/bbl by 10:50 BST. Prices regained support here, rising to $68.30/bbl by 11:20 BST, but sell-side interest finally took the contract to $68.05/bbl at the time of writing (11:40 BST). API estimates for US crude oil inventories in the week ending 18 Apr displayed a draw of 4.565mb alongside a 0.354mb decline in stocks at Cushing, Oklahoma. The market will now await the US EIA’s official inventory data, which will be out at 15:30 BST this afternoon. In other news, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told a closed-door investor summit on Tuesday that the tariff standoff with China cannot be sustained and that the US and China need to find ways to de-escalate. Bessent further added that this de-escalation will come in the very near future. US President Donald Trump has further stated that he plans to be “very nice” to China in any trade talks. In other news, the HCOB German flash composite PMI, compiled by S&P Global, fell into contraction territory at 49.7 in April (March: 51.3). This downturn was driven by the service sector. While the manufacturing PMI also fell to 48.0 (March: 48.3), manufacturing output grew for the second consecutive month, albeit at a slower rate of 51.6. Finally, at the time of writing, the Jun/Jul’25 and Jun/Dec’25 Brent futures spreads stand at $0.98/bbl and $2.95/bbl, respectively.
