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On September 5th, U.S. Commerce Secretary Andrew Lutnick was appointed to review transactions between the Pentagon and companies under Cerberus Capital Management to address potential conflicts of interest. According to U.S. officials, the Department of Defense has assigned Lutnick to review these transactions. Cerberus is a private equity firm founded by Deputy Secretary of Defense Stephen Feinberg, with significant investments in defense and national security, including several companies that have received Pentagon contracts. After joining the government, Feinberg transferred his business assets to a trust for his adult children. Reports indicate that Lutnicks review of arrangements involving Cerberus is intended to exceed existing Department of Defense ethical guidelines. However, Lutnick previously led Cantor Fitzgerald, which has had a business relationship with Cerberus for over a decade and helped manage related investment funds. Some of Cerberus defense subsidiaries recently secured Pentagon contracts, including a $10 billion, 26-year Army helicopter pilot training contract for M1 Support Services, and a $90 million defense contract for hypersonic testing company Stratolaunch. It remains unclear whether Lutnik reviewed these transactions, and the specific scope of his review.Fitch: The rating upgrade reflects the strengthening of Portugals public finances, including the expected downward trend in government debt.Barclays: Oil outflows from the Middle East are higher than in the early stages of the conflict, but the market remains in a state of shortage, and the inventory buffer is now greatly reduced.According to Al Arabiya TV: Lebanese official data shows that Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon tonight have killed three people.On September 5th, stronger-than-expected US August jobs data triggered renewed bets on a possible Federal Reserve rate hike, but Wall Street risk assets did not show significant panic. Data showed increased resilience in the job market, leading traders to raise their expectations for a rate hike at the Feds September 16th meeting. US Treasuries experienced a sell-off, the dollar strengthened, and the S&P 500 fell on Friday but still recorded a weekly gain. Unlike previous rate hikes that often triggered capital outflows, this round of bond market adjustments has not yet spread to other risk assets. Credit spreads remain low, limiting pressure on corporate bonds and stock index markets. JPMorgan Chase stated that US Treasury liquidity has deteriorated significantly, but corporate bond ETFs and stock index futures markets have not yet experienced similar tension. Market resilience mainly stems from economic growth and corporate profits, especially as AI investment continues to drive large-scale capital expenditures by technology companies. Analysts point out that the market is currently more focused on whether yields will rise rapidly than on the jobs data itself. The market focus will shift to inflation data and whether the Fed will reconsider its rate hike path due to inflationary pressures. If yields rise further rapidly, it could force investors to reduce their risk exposure.

WTI struggles to prolong its two-day uptrend below $78, as negative sentiment undermines expectations for China-led oil demand

Daniel Rogers

Mar 02, 2023 15:46

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Following a two-day uptrend that reached the greatest levels in a fortnight, the price of WTI crude oil fluctuates between $77.80 and $90 early Thursday.

 

The recent struggles of the black gold may be related to the contradictory signals encircling China and the Oil equities. However, negative sentiment and the resurgence of the US Dollar appear to be the quote's greatest obstacles to the upside.

 

In addition, higher-than-anticipated US inventories weigh on the energy benchmark. The weekly data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) indicates a 1.165M increase in Oil inventories, compared to the expected 0.45M increase and the previous level of 7.648M.

 

The willingness of US President Joseph Biden to continue pumping the markets with the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) and the absence of offers for Russian Oil also exert downward pressure on the price of WTI crude oil.

 

The latest New York Times (NYT) headlines suggest a potential rift between the United States and China at the important event. According to the news, "China is urging the start of peace talks, and some Group of 20 nations may support that notion when they meet in India, but U.S. officials contend Russia would not negotiate in good faith."

 

It should be noted, however, that the recent uptick in China activity data and optimistic remarks from the dragon nation's policymakers keep black gold purchasers optimistic. China's Minister of Human Resources recently stated, "China's employment will continue to increase this year and remains stable overall." On Wednesday, China's Finance Minister Liu He expressed a willingness to increase the country's fiscal expenditure while noting that the foundation of China's economic recovery remains fragile.

 

However, hawkish remarks from policymakers of the US Federal Reserve (Fed), the Bank of England (BoE), and the European Central Bank (ECB) highlighted the need for additional rate hikes to combat inflation issues, which exerted downward pressure on the price of oil.

 

In response to these events, 10-year US Treasury bond yields surpassed 4% for the first time since early November 2022, while 2-year yields ascended to their highest levels since June 2007 by flashing 4.91%. The increase in US Treasury bond yields reflects the market's concerns, which in turn have impacted on bulls on Wall Street, S&P 500 Futures, and WTI bulls recently. Consequently, S&P 500 Futures were down 0.5 percent as of press time despite the varied closing of Wall Street benchmarks.

 

Moving on, G20 updates could be combined with comments from central bankers and secondary US data to amuse Oil traders.