Gold prices dip as hawkish Fed minutes weigh ahead of Jackson Hole
By Barani Krishnan
Investing.com - Crude prices fell as much as 6% on Monday on anxiety that oil titans Russia and Saudi Arabia were still arguing about who between them caused the market to collapse rather than agreeing on production cuts that would help.
Yet, the market avoided another freefall after the chief executive of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund said the two countries were indeed “very, very close” to a deal to rescue the oil market.
“I think the whole market understands that this deal is important and it will bring lots of stability, so much important stability to the market, and we are very close,” Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, told CNBC.
A virtual meeting between OPEC and its allies led by Russia was scheduled to happen on Monday.
But it was now reportedly pushed forward to Thursday after fresh round of apparent bickering between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman on was to blame for the production-and-price warfare between the two countries that added to the demand destruction for oil brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.
West Texas Intermediate, the New York-traded benchmark for U.S. crude, settled Friday's trade was down $1.82, or 6.4%, at $26.52 per barrel by 1:00 PM ET (17:00 GMT). It rose by a record 32% last week, rebounding from 18-year lows of $19.27 after U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted that he had got Moscow and Riyadh to agree to production cuts of as much as 15 million barrels per day — exactly what the International Energy Agency estimated as the surplus to land on the market from this month.
Brent, the London-traded global benchmark for crude, was down $1.39, or 4.1%, at $32.72 per barrel. Brent rose 37% last week.