- Oil eases from three-month highs ahead of Fed meeting
- September ’23 WTI lost 24c this morning to trade around $78.50/Bbl
- The U.S. dollar continues to strengthen relative to its recent lows weighing on dollar-denominated commodities
- Crude prices surged nearly $8/Bbl since early July, driven by Saudi's 1 MMBbl/d output cut and Russia's plan to curb 0.5 MMBbl/d exports in August
- China's leaders pledged policy support for the economy on Monday, hinting at more stimulus to boost domestic demand
- Amid weak domestic and international demand, China's slow Q2 growth heightens pressure for more stimulus
- The market expects a 25-bp rate hike from Fed’s July 25-26 meeting
- Despite initial signals for two rate hikes this year, weaker economic reports have led many to expect the Fed’s Wednesday hike to be the final one in the current cycle
- Russia’s weekly refinery processing falls for the first time since June (Bloomberg)
- Russia's oil processing rates averaged 5.6 MMBbl/d for the week ending July 19, marking a decline of 0.08 MMBbl/d due to maintenance work at several refineries
- Despite this weekly drop, the overall average crude processing for the month through July 19 remained higher at 5.64 MMBbl/d, compared to June's 5.46 MMBbl/d
- Despite a decrease in refinery runs last week, Russia's seaborne oil exports for the week ending July 17 fell slightly from 3.27 MMBbl/d to 3.16 MMBbl/d, according to Kpler