- Oil extends losses as US inflation modestly cools in February but still remains well above Fed targets
- April ’23 WTI lost $1.48 this morning to trade around $73.32/Bbl
- US inflation slowed to 6% in February, matching expectations and down from 6.4% in January but still well above targets (WSJ)
- This decline might ease the pressure for aggressive rate hikes from the Federal Reserve
- The core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, rose 0.5% last month and was up 5.5% from a year earlier, according to a Labor Department report on Tuesday
- Crude remains under pressure amid economic concerns following the failure of Silicon Valley Bank last week
- The focus continues to be on concerns about tightening monetary policy ahead of the FOMC meeting next week
- Russia’s oil exports rebound as India buys more cargoes (BBG)
- Russia's seaborne crude exports recovered 40% of the last week's loss, rising to 3.3 MMBbl/d for the week ending March 10
- India has become the largest buyer of Russian seaborne crude since November, surpassing China, and has consistently bought more than China ever since
- Despite the Kremlin's announcement of a retaliatory 0.5 MMBbl/d output cut in March, vessel tracking data monitored by Bloomberg shows no indication of any impact on the oil flows