Oil Prices Ease, but Analysts Warn Drop May be Overdone

Dow Jones11-10 20:45

Hopes of a de-escalation in the Iran war have pushed Brent crude prices down to around $90 a barrel, a level last seen in late August.

Over September and October, prices climbed as high as $113 a barrel as investors braced for intense strikes after the U.S. midterms. That fear eased after Repubicans' bruising defeat, which Vice President JD Vance publicly blamed on the war.

Now that President Trump has said that new Iran strikes seem "quite unlikely" for now, traders are re-evaluating the risk that they had been pricing into oil contracts.

"The market has continued to unwind some of the geopolitical risk premium built into prices in recent weeks," analysts at Dutch bank ING wrote today.

But the drop in oil prices could be overdone, analysts warn.

Oil flows from the Middle East have to a great extent recovered, but signs that countries have started to rebuild oil stockpiles could push prices higher, DNB Carnegie energy analyst Helge Andre Martinsen said.

Recently, both JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs had put the fair value of Brent below $95 a barrel, above what futures of Brent are currently trading at.

Plus, China has resumed buying crude oil, eliminating a major factor previously keeping oil prices down. Seaborne crude oil loadings destined for China averaged 10.4 million barrels a day in October, up 3.9 million barrels a day from June, according to S&P Global Energy.

 

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