Crude prices softened but didn’t break as energy traders await how supplies will be disrupted when the Russian crude price cap begins early next month. Today’s oil price weakness was mainly attributed to a weakening short-term demand outlook by OPEC and nervousness that the Fed could still remain aggressive with raising rates.
Warmer weather across Europe has been good news for natural gas prices and that has removed some of the extra demand that was expected to come crude oil’s way. The warm weather however is about to go away and that could keep energy prices rising going forward.
Gold
Gold’s rally appears to be running out of steam. The Fed remains the key driver for gold prices and this week could see a strong round of hawkish pushback from the policymakers. The Fed’s Waller kicked off the week with some hawkish talk that reminded traders we need to see a couple of more strong drops with inflation to say policymakers can pause.
Gold appears to have strong resistance at the $1800 level, with decent support at the $1750 region.