U.S. crude oil futures slipped below $72/bbl on Friday but managed to close with a fourth straight weekly gain thanks in large part to the slow recovery in production following two hurricanes in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.
Oil markets have, however, kicked off the new week on a losing note, with WTI trading at $70.40/bbl after pulling back from a seven-week high of $72.86/bbl that it hit on Wednesday. Natural gas prices have also pulled back from a seven-year high of $5.460/MMBtu, also set on Wednesday, to trade at $4.99/MMBtu as demand concerns have resurfaced following China reporting a new Covid-19 outbreak in Fujian province while Japan has extended stricter Covid-19 lockdown measures.
IHS Markit’s Marshall Steeves says oil prices could face near-term weakness as Gulf output recovers; however, he says oil prices in the longer term will mainly be dictated by demand growth.
That said, the stock market bull run shows no signs of slowing down. According to Michael Hartnett, BofA chief investment strategist, the market is seeing a “monster reallocation of cash-to-stocks as tax redistribution threat recedes & Fed expected to remain Wall St-friendly (liquidity easiest since Jul’ 07).”
Last week saw the largest inflow into U.S. large-cap funds ever at $28.3B, more than 4x the inflows of $6.9B for U.S. growth funds, $4.2B for small-cap funds, and $1.6B for value stocks. Among large-caps, the Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSEARCA:XLK) attracted the largest inflows at $3.2B while the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSEARCA:XLE) saw the fourth highest inflows at $1B.
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Source: Oil Price
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