Oil futures were slightly lower in early trade Tuesday as investors assessed prospects for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and weighed the outlook for crude demand from China.
Price moves
-
West Texas Intermediate crude
CL00,
-0.31%
for April delivery
CL.1,
-0.31%CLJ24,
-0.31%
fell 15 cents, or 0.2%, to $77.43 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. -
May Brent crude
BRN00,
-0.32%BRNK24,
-0.32%,
the global benchmark, was off 24 cents, or 0.3%, at $81.43 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe. Front-month April Brent
BRNJ24,
-0.34%
was down 27 cents, or 0.3%, at $82.26 a barrel.
Market drivers
President Joe Biden said Monday that he hopes a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas could take effect by early next week, pausing hostilities and allowing for the release of remaining hostages.
Hostilities have so far not crimped the flow of crude from the Middle East, though concerns over a wider conflict have provided some underlying support to prices and have triggered occasional bouts of volatility.
News reports said Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin approved a six-month ban on gasoline exports beginning March 1.
A ban is probably due to the refinery outages in Russia, said Barbara Lambrecht, commodity strategist at Commerzbank, in a note.
Russian gasoline exports, however, are low, she said, which means the ban is unlikely to significantly affect supply on the global market. As for the European market, imports of Russian petroleum products have already been sanctioned for around a year, with a few exceptions, she noted.
Meanwhile, there “are suggestions that China has been buying crude cargoes at an accelerated pace since the mid-February holiday, while also increasing its term supplies from Saudi Arabia in March,” said Ewa Manthey and Warren Patterson, commodity strategists at ING, in a note.
”The increased purchase from the country could also be attributed to the advance buying made ahead of the maintenance work when refiners typically reduce imports,” they wrote.
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