Oil marches higher as optimism fades around Ukraine
It’s was another volatile session in the oil market, with doubts over US-Russian diplomatic efforts lifting prices. Oil prices were declining early in the day Monday at the prospect of a Biden-Putin meeting, but as hopes around that unraveled, the price of oil climbed.
This despite a nuclear deal between the US and Iran seemingly being close which could bring 1.3 million barrels per day back into the markets, alleviating some of those pressures we’re currently seeing. OPEC+ has been continuing to struggle to hit its quotas which has largely created the imbalance we’re seeing, with the group’s compliance hitting 129% last month, up from 122% in November.
Gold choppy around psychological resistance barrier
It’s been a choppy start to the week in the gold market, with the yellow metal initially seeing some profit-taking but it quickly found itself back in demand as the headlines turned ugly once more. Gold continued to see resistance around USD 1,900 though, which was proving to be a major psychological barrier.
While there is still hope for diplomacy, which would reduce gold’s safe-haven appeal, there’s certainly reason to believe an invasion is imminent. That will continue to see gold well supported and, in the absence of serious progress on Thursday when Blinkin meets Lavrov, a break may not be far away.