Amid the setback in the U.S. budget talks with less than two weeks before the automatic tax hikes and spending cuts worth $600 billion will start, tensions are rising amid worries lawmakers in Washington will fail to avert the “fiscal cliff.”
Such a scenario, deepen the threat of a recession in the world’s largest energy consumer. The House Republican leaders decided there will be no more votes until after the Christmas holiday, an embarrassing setback for Speaker John Boehner.
And with the fiscal cliff being the key driven for markets ahead of the year-end, worries over demand on oil eclipsed the strong GDP data from the U.S. yesterday. Growth was revised higher in quarter three to 3.1% from 2.7% previous.
Crude oil is trading as of this writing around the $89.30 from the opening at $89.99 and with the highest at $90.05 and the lowest at $88.92. Technically, crude faces a resistance at $88.25 and a support at $87.10.
Brent is trading at $109.66 a barrel after falling 0.49%; natural gas is trading at $3.428 per 1,000 cubic feet after falling 0.92%; heating oil is trading around 3.050 after falling 0.24%; gasoline is trading at $2.748 after falling 0.21%.
Markets will be eyeing today UK’s GDP for Q3, Canada’s GDP for October and the U.S.’s personal income and personal spending for November as well as the University of Michigan confidence report for December.