Oil buoyed by inventory reversal
Oil prices were back in the green on Wednesday, paring Tuesday's declines just as WTI appeared to be nearing USD 100 once more. The recovery was aided by the EIA inventory data which reversed last week’s shock 9.4 million barrel increase to register an 8 million barrel draw.
The downward revisions to growth forecasts from the IMF and World Bank in recent days weighed on oil prices after a four-day surge. The war in Ukraine and lockdowns in China were largely behind those revisions which will weigh on demand this year.
Even so, with supply catching up slowly, prices were expected to remain very high for the foreseeable future.
Gold’s range shift
It’s been a turbulent few days for gold. After cruising higher for most of April to peak near USD 2,000, the yellow metal went into freefall yesterday and now appeared to have stabilized around USD 1,950.
This could potentially mark the new range support after a period of trading broadly between USD 1,900 and USD 1,950. High inflation was prompting more aggressive tightening and traders may be fearing more to come, not to mention the economic consequences of such policy moves.