Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
- Nickel price doubled at one stage on supply worries and short squeeze
- Russia threatens Europe’s gas supplies as west mulls oil import ban over Ukraine invasion
- Wall Street suffers biggest slide in more than a year as oil prices surge
- How important is Russian oil and how high could prices go?
- Russia-Ukraine war: humanitarian corridor opened from Sumy; Moscow threatens to cut gas supplies to Europe – live
The oil price has opened higher too, with Brent crude up 2% at $125.70 per barrel.
Yesterday, Brent spiked alarmingly to $139 per barrel, a 14-year high, after the US said it was talking to its European allies about potentially banning Russian oil imports. It then slipped back, as Germany’s Olaf Scholz pushed back against the idea.
“This is the tightest fundamental backdrop in years and the developments in Russia/Ukraine have ignited a market that was already a coiled spring. How high can oil prices go? Pick a number, this is a market in disarray.
Market fundamentals are the strongest in at least 15 years… it is not unfathomable for prices to rocket to $200/bbl by summer, spur a recession and end the year closer to $50/bbl ($200 call options have been bid). To be clear, this is not our base case, but such a scenario does not sound implausible today. Two weeks ago, such a notion would have been ludicrous.”
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