- WTI dropped to the lowest level since December 2021 on Monday morning
- Many commodities came under pressure as protests in China erupted over draconian anti-virus curbs
- The protests were a rare show of defiance and are raising the threat of a government crackdown (Bloomberg)
- In Beijing, traffic was down 45% from a year ago
- AEGIS notes that China’s oil demand growth is key to the overall demand picture for 2023. Many analysts have China accounting for about half of the world's total petroleum demand growth next year
- Money managers slashed net-long positions in Brent by the most since March (ICE)
- The pullback in positions was the sixth largest since ICE began publishing data in 2011
- Speculator net-longs in ICE Brent were cut by 71k lots last week
- CFTC data report is due later Monday, delayed by the US holiday
- AEGIS notes that speculators do not often lead price movements, but they can exacerbate moves to the downside and upside