Crude Recovers But Still Down on the Day

Crude ticking back up from earlier losses but remains down on the day weighed down by modest China growth targets and concern for the impact of further central bank rate tightening on global oil demand.

• Despite the cautious China growth announcement over the weekend, the recovery in oil demand in China remains a significant upside risk to prices. The Brent Dec23 25 delta call put skew is unchanged today at around -3.6% compared to -4.8% at the start of Feb.
• The crude time spreads have also recovered most of the earlier decline to trade just below the previous close levels.
• The WTI – Brent spread continues to rally to the closest since the start of February with Brent falling faster than WTI.
  • Brent MAY 23 down -0.6% at 85.28$/bbl
  • WTI APR 23 down -0.3% at 79.41$/bbl
  • WTI-Brent up 0.26$/bbl at -5.75$/bbl
  • Brent MAY 23-JUN 23 down -0.01$/bbl at 0.56$/bbl
  • Brent JUN 23-DEC 23 down -0.17$/bbl at 2.73$/bbl