Nov’24 Brent futures contract found strong support this morning, trading at $74.70/bbl at 07:00 BST and reaching $75.86/bbl at 11:20 BST (time of writing). In the news today, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian declared that he does not want to enter a full-blown conflict with Israel, warning of its “irreversible” consequences. Attending the UN General Assembly in New York, Pezeshkian said “we do not wish to be the cause of instability in the Middle East”. In other news, US Gulf Coast producers including BP and Chevron have begun evacuating oil platforms on the back of tropical storm Helene, expected to progress into a major hurricane with winds of up to 155 mph by Thursday. Finally, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has unveiled its biggest stimulus since the COVID-19 pandemic to set the country on track towards the government’s 5% growth target for this year. This plan includes PBOC cutting banks’ reserve requirement ratio (RRR) by 50 bps and freeing up $142.21 billion for lending, as per data by Reuters. At the time of writing, the front month (Nov/Dec’24) and six-month (Nov/May’25) Brent futures spreads are at $0.75/bbl and $1.95/bbl, respectively.
