Energy calamity as May oil halves in one......>

FOREX: Energy calamity as May oil halves in one session

- A remarkable session for commodity markets as oil benchmarks fell

calamitously. WTI and other land-locked benchmarks more than halved on Monday as

markets bailed out of the May contract for fear of having to pay soaring storage

and delivery costs in a market facing plummeting real demand for fuel. The May

contract fell below $9/bbl at some points of the session - the lowest level on

record for the modern futures contract that goes back to the early 1980s.

- Perplexingly, commodity-tied FX traded weaker, but avoided much of the rest of

the oil markets fallout as WTI contracts further up the futures curve (i.e. the

now active Jun'20) were more resilient. Nonetheless, CAD was weakest in G10

Monday.

- Elsewhere, FX was more muted. The lack of data releases kept focus on the

global COVID curve, which continues to improve - notably in New York and the UK.

- RBA minutes and a speech from the RBA governor Lowe draw some focus Tuesday.

UK jobs numbers cross as well as Germany's ZEW survey. Canadian retail sales and

US existing home sales are the highlight of the US session.