Crude Arrests Decline

Crude futures have paused their decline for now after plunging on Monday; WTI is up $0.49 from settlement levels at $66.91/bbl, Brent is down $0.02 at $68.80/bbl. After a failed deal at last month's meeting sent oil markets through an acute spell of strength, OPEC+ finally struck an out-of-cycle agreement to turn on an extra 400,000bpd of extra supply every month from August onwards. This boost to supply met soggy demand for growth proxies as equities globally sank sharply. This manifested in a near-8% slide for WTI crude futures, the sharpest decline since the market-breaking drop into negative territory last year. WTI crude futures now eye support at the $66.02/bbl 100-dma, with the June rally in prices now all but erased. Sentiment has been broadly negative in the Asia time zone over concerns around the delta variant of COVID-19.