Lagos — Despite the crosscurrents of tariffs, ceasefire agreements and an impending OPEC+ meeting, a certain calm descends over the crude markets and stability is the order of play.
The Brent futures price looks quietly content in a $75 to $70.70 range, and I see these levels as defining the near-term directional risk – where a breakout of either level would offer some degree of confidence of price kicking on further from that point.
For now, the crude market has found a fair value, and the aggregation of all flows and positioning seems happy with pricing with the collective waiting for new news to present itself which could lead to a new trend or higher volatility.
We’ve seen limited interest in moving either WTI or Brent futures positioning around the post-ceasefire agreement and tariff news, and both factors are now largely in the price. Subsequently, energy traders will be looking more intently towards the weekend OPEC+ meeting and starting to review scenarios and probabilities.
Of course, many of the big US-based oil traders will be taking an extended break for Thanksgiving. However, orders may need to be left with others on the desk as any pre-positioning ahead of the OPEC+ meeting will still need to be put in place before Friday’s futures markets close, as the prospect of gapping risk in crude on the Monday open is still a risk that needs to be managed.
That said, the calmness seen in the price action and lack of trending conditions suggests oil traders see the OPEC+ meeting as a lower volatility affair, with the group likely to swing to an almost unanimous call to hold off from unwinding its 2.2 mbd voluntary cuts until Q125 – with crude at $73 and the Trump/Bessent combo exploring another 3 mbpd of US output, this may be the prudent thing to do for now.
*Chris Weston Head of Research at Pepperstone
