- Oil slips from a three-month high following weak Chinese trade data
- September ’23 WTI lost $1.40 this morning to trade around $80.48/Bbl
- Equities trade higher, while the dollar strengthened relative to its recent lows weighing on dollar-denominated commodities
- China's July oil imports fell 18.8% from June yet rose 17% Y-o-Y, while overall imports fell by 12.4% and overall exports dropped 14.5%
- However, analysts remain optimistic about China's fuel demand from August to October, expecting rises from peak construction, manufacturing, and summer travel.
- Additionally, Saudi Arabia’s cabinet reaffirmed that the country would pursue precautionary measures of OPEC+
- The market awaits US CPI for July on Thursday for clues on the path forward for monetary tightening
- China's oil imports plunge to a six-month low amid slow economic recovery (Bloomberg)
- China's July crude oil imports dropped to a six-month low amid the nation's slow economic recovery, hitting 10.33 MMBbl/d
- A summer lull in industrial activity, a slump in housing and manufacturing sectors, and utilization of existing inventories may have contributed to the dip in imports too
- Following the end of the Covid Zero policy, China’s oil demand may have peaked for the year with record onshore inventories of 1.02 GbBL, according to Vortexa
- However, China's July oil product exports rose 46% from 2022, reaching 5.31 million tons or 1.26 MMBbl/d