WTI $52.53 -$4.40, Brent $56.54 -$5.53, Diff $4.01 -$1.13, NG $2.76 -7c
Oil price
A very short blog today as there is little company news but one had to mention such a torrid day on the oil markets. I am also off to see Andrew Knott at Savannah which will be the first time the boot has been on the other foot, so to speak… Ironically on a day when European equity markets were expected to crater it wasn't as bad as expected and commodities took a lot of the heat. As I bang on about too much of the time, the correlation between the US$ and the oil price is exceptional so if you have a strong view on the greenback its worth plugging that in.
Yesterday, apart from woes in Greece the looming deadline day for the P5+1 talks concentrated the mind, as I said yesterday today’s deadline might slip but only until Friday, after that its September 7th. Having said that I don't think that even with a surprise the market will wake up to a torrent of oil should an agreement be reached it's just that the market is well supplied already and whisper it quietly the rest of Opec have been flat to the boards in case of new quotas.
The WTI fall was the biggest since February 4th when it broke $50 to put things into some sort of perspective and as I have said all along the market may test those levels again if not the absolute lows. Watch out for the API stats tonight, another decent build in inventories today and tomorrow followed by a deal in Vienna may put more pressure on the price but the reverse of course would ease concerns, meantime it will be back to what the Bubbles do this afternoon…
Weir Group
A small acquisition for Weir this morning who are buying Delta Industrial Valves for $47m. This US based company manufactures knife gate valves for the mining, oil sands and industrial markets.
And finally…
Federer, Muzza and Stan the man won easy enough and although Djoko has to come back to finish off Anderson he should manage it after an early shock. Its womens quarter finals day today and Serena should move on towards her 20th Grand Slam.
Lots of stick for not covering Tour de France, historically its been rather a haze, if you weren’t there….but good to see Chris Froome…
