Roller Coaster Pattern Playing out on Oil Prices

Oil prices are going up at least in the near term on recent report that Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine is readily available for use amid a surprise build seen in U.S oil stockpiles coupled with delayed OPEC+ talks surrounding their course of action on supply cuts.

At about 5.30 am GMT in Asia the U.S based oil contract broke below its critical support level around the $44.25/barrel, as oil traders became jittery.

However, that changed few hours later on reports that Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine has been approved for use in the United Kingdom, thereby restored some buying pressure not seen in Wednesday oil trading session.

At the time of writing this report the London based oil contract, Brent crude futures was trading around $47.55/barrel. Still both major benchmarks Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate futures remained far above the $40 mark.

Some hours ago, Oil bears were taking near term actions taking to account that recent data from the American Petroleum Institute revealed a 4.146-million-barrel gain for the week ending November 27. Oil experts had earlier anticipated that a 2.272-million-barrel drop.

Still, Oil traders are presently in a state of limbo has the oil cartel group delayed the all-important meeting till tomorrow where OPEC+ will decide on crude oil production cuts. The meeting was originally planned to hold on Tuesday.

In addition, oil bears are having some signs of relief in moving freely around the fragile oil market, as a major oil player, Saudi Arabia considers resigning from its role as co-chair of the group’s Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee. Such a move has kept many oil traders second-guessing, why such a move at a time, oil prices seem to be ticking up relatively.

Such timing has kept the price volatility seen in November under check on the basis of recent price action reveals oil traders are still languishing in OPEC + meeting delay.

That said, it’s hard for such reports to dent oil bull resolve at least in the midterm, taking to account that the major headlines, hitting the market are Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccines hitting the market this week coupled with the long-awaited U.S stimulus deal about to be agreed on in a matter of days.

Indeed, it is worth keeping an eye on such prevailing macros while the wrangling over OPEC+ production cuts continues.