- Oil is headed for a second-consecutive weekly loss
- WTI fell nearly $2/Bbl to trade under $80/Bbl, its lowest in nearly six-weeks
- Demand concerns come into focus again as geopolitical tensions ease
- China reported over 24,000 new Covid cases on Thursday, the highest since April
- Guangzhou, the country's major manufacturing hub, continues to see the majority of new cases, with 9,000 new cases reported yesterday
- The number of cases has now more than doubled since revisions to the nation's zero-Covid policy were announced last Friday
- State media and officials have maintained that the nation's revised zero-Covid policy was a refinement of rules rather than a relaxation of controls
- Additionally, St Louis Fed President James Bullard said policymakers should raise interest rates to at least 5% to 5.25% from the current level of just below 4.00% to be "sufficiently restrictive" to curb inflation
- The U.S. government said that it would soon provide further guidance on the cap on Russian oil prices in a panel discussion yesterday (Reuters)
- According to Jim Mullinax, director of the Office of Sanctions Policy and Implementation, the government is engaging with industry and its global partners in a "spirit of flexibility"
- It is still unknown whether the upcoming guidance will include the price cap itself
- Chinese diesel exports almost doubled last month from a year earlier after Beijing issued a fresh export quota (BBG)
- Exports totaled 0.255 MMBbl/d in October, according to customs data
- October exports were down from September’s pace of 0.430 MMBbl/d but still the second highest since July 2021
- Underinvestment in shale production will result in limited oil supplies and modest production growth for the next two years, said Hess CEO John Hess at an investor conference on Thursday (BBG)
- Hess projected that U.S. oil production would reach 13 MMBbl/d before plateauing, as publicly traded shale companies in the post-Covid era continue to prioritize shareholder profits above maximizing growth