The Sep’24 Brent futures flat price has been under downward pressure this morning, falling from $81.40/bbl at 09:25 BST to $80.28/bbl at 11:35 BST (time of writing). China’s Central Bank unexpectedly cut the one-year medium-term lending facility rate from 2.5% to 2.3%, its first cut since August last year. The People’s Bank of China also injected 200 billion yuan (approximately $27.54 billion) into the market to support the struggling economy. TotalEnergies’ Q2 earnings dropped 6% to $4.7 billion due to weak refined product and gas demand, missing the expected $4.96 billion. Despite this, the company plans a $2 billion share buyback in Q3. Flash PMIs in the US rose to a 27-month high of 55 in July (from 54.8 in June), but the uptick was solely centred at service firms while manufacturing output slipped into contraction. Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said that Russia is not planning to ban diesel exports, and the situation is stable. He noted no additional measures are planned for normalising Ai-95 gasoline supplies, despite recent temporary supply difficulties. The wholesale price of Ai-95 gasoline has surged by around 44% in the past month. At the time of writing, the front and 6-month spreads are $0.85/bbl and $3.13/bbl, respectively.
