Off Best Levels In Asia

WTI and Brent are -$0.20 at typing, backing away from session highs after we learnt that U.S. President Biden and Russian President Putin have agreed to meet in-principle re: Ukraine. Both benchmarks continue to operate comfortably above Friday’s lows, as the lingering worry surrounding the Russia-Ukraine situation remains evident.

• White House spokesperson Psaki noted that “Russia appears to be continuing preparations for a full-scale assault on Ukraine very soon” in remarks re: the Biden-Putin summit, following Bloomberg source reports of the U.S. warning allies that a Russian invasion would target multiple cities beyond Kyiv.
• Elsewhere, hope surrounding a potential U.S-Iran nuclear agreement remains elevated, providing some counter to the impulse from the Russia-Ukraine standoff. To recap, a Reuters report on Friday carried remarks from a senior European Union official stating that an agreement could come “in the coming week, the coming two weeks or so”, and that the text of the agreement was now “very, very close to what is going to be the final agreement.”
• A note that both benchmarks notched lower weekly closes last Friday, breaking an 8-week streak of gains.
• Looking to technical levels, recent dips in WTI and Brent still leave them trading well above their respective support levels at $88.41 (Feb 9 low) and $89.93 (Feb 8), while resistance remains intact at Feb 14 highs ($95.82 for WTI and $96.78 for Brent).