Crude oil rises 1.5%
WTI crude caught a bid in the final few minutes ahead of settlement to rise $0.99 to $62.94. That's the highest since April 20.
On the chart, a mess double bottom may have formed at $60.70 and that targets a return to the April high at $64.30.
The OPEC+ meetings this week were a risk but they've now cancelled so we won't be hearing from them until late May. The bears right now are pointing to India but oil demand in the world's third-largest importer has held up ok during this terrible stretch of the pandemic. Rystad today warned it could get much worse.
"If the grim trend continues, the oil demand loss India will experience could be the single largest reduction in absolute terms that any country has suffered since the beginning of the pandemic," Rystad Energy said in a note.
BP had some interesting comments on demand in today's earnings report:
"Incredibly strong demand in America and China. China's oil demand is now above pre-pandemic levels, America is almost back to where it was. The vaccines are going to kick in now in Europe."
They forecast that global stockpiles will reach normal levels at year-end and forecast that overall demand will rise above 2019 levels.
