- Oil extends losses and heads for a weekly decline
- March ’23 WTI lost $2.88 this morning to trade around $75.61/Bbl
- Thursday’s stronger-than-expected producer price index (PPI) report and strong initial jobless claims raised concerns that the Fed may have to hike rates aggressively
- PPI rose by 0.7% in January after declining by 0.2% in December, and PPI’s rise often reflects supply conditions in the economy
- Also weighing on prices this week was a strong US dollar that is at a six-week high
- Saudi Arabia says OPEC+ will maintain current quotas all year (Bloomberg)
- Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said yesterday that “The agreement that we struck in October is here to stay for the rest of the year, period”
- OPEC+ has agreed to reduce their crude production targets by 2 MMBbl/d until the end of 2023
- The minister said that the bloc is still wary of a recovery in Chinese demand and they could not increase output based only on early indications of a revival in demand
- The alliance raised its global demand forecast for 2023 earlier this week after China abandoned Covid restrictions, but the minister noted that more evidence of a sustained rebound is still needed