The Brent futures flat price for the June contract has been retracing downward this morning, reaching a low of $84.59/bbl by 09:00 GMT with a recovery to just over $85.00/bbl by the time of writing (10:00 GMT).
The Brent futures flat price for the Jun contract took a small downturn to reach a low of $85.45/bbl at 14:35 GMT. However, the contract managed to regain some strength retracing to above the $86.00/bbl mark by 15:50 GMT, yet, prices have since oscillated just beneath the $86/bbl level.
This fortnight in the Dubai market, we see the market once again tied to ranges.
With maintenance barrels being priced, the North Sea crude market saw an incredibly bearish week in the prompt as physical differentials surged below $0/bbl into the end of last week…
This past fortnight has seen a generally weaker naphtha complex in both regions, yet, more exacerbated in the East, as Apr E/W fell to single digit figures.
The Brent futures flat price for the June contract has had a rangebound morning. Price action saw a small surge reaching $86.23/bbl at 09:15 GMT, before coming back down to just below the $86/bbl mark by the time of writing (10:00 GMT).
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The Jun Brent futures contract strengthened over the afternoon, climbing to $86.40/bbl at 14:50 GMT, but retraced to $85.90/bbl at 17:10 GMT.
For the week to Mar 19, the crude futures witnessed an atmosphere of bullishness from money managers.
Technical indicators for June revealed a week of consolidation and widening Bollinger bands. Brent’s RSI briefly entered overbought territory before coming off as prices corrected lower.
Oil prices registered some strength overnight on the back of support generated in the early hours of Asian trading with the Jun Brent futures climbing to $85.40/bbl at 03:20 GMT. The futures eased to $85.35/bbl come 09:20 GMT, but remain elevated compared to last Friday’s plummet into the sub-$85/bbl handles.
The Brent futures flat price for the prompt contract has seen a relatively volatile morning. Price action initially held just below the $86/bbl mark, however, after reaching lows of $85.55/bbl at 08:45 GMT, prices found support to climb to $86.17/bbl come 09:40 GMT.
The May Brent futures contract is poised to end the week largely unchanged amid prices having coming off from $86/bbl at 13:20 GMT to $85.30/bbl at 17:20 GMT (time of writing).
The HSFO complex saw huge swings in price action which ultimately culminated in a softening of the East/West on fears of poor Chinese demand at these higher flat price levels (around $480/mt in the prompt 380).
The May Brent futures contract opened in the low $85/bbl handles this morning before witnessing support take prices to $85.75/bbl at 10:20 GMT (time of writing).
