Brent Jumps 2% to $106.80 as Energy Ceasefire Fails to Calm Oil
Trump said on Sunday that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to stop attacking each other's energy facilities. On Friday he had said Russia would immediately supply more than 300,000 metric tons of diesel. Brent fell as low as $102.99 in Asian trading on the two announcements.
The move reversed in European trading. Brent was up 2% at $106.80 as of 9:15 a.m. ET, its highest since September 29; WTI was up 2.1% at $93.80. The market did not read the ceasefire as a supply story; it read it as an unconfirmed announcement.
No confirmation came. Zelensky said he learned of the ceasefire from the media and that Russia struck a thermal power plant in Kharkiv; Moscow did not comment. The Gulf did the real lifting: two tankers were hit over the weekend, one off Oman and one in the Strait of Hormuz.
The Riyadh airport attack happened on Saturday; what is new is that the airport's closure has been extended. So far the attacks have not disrupted Saudi production or exports.
Goldman Sachs puts the risk premium in Brent at just over $20 a barrel. The bank raised its December Brent forecast to $90 from $85.
The day's second story is memory chips. China's ChangXin Memory (CXMT) said it has made progress on a denser DRAM cell design and plans a new server-memory product by year-end.
South Korea's Kospi closed down 3.65% at 6,384. Samsung lost 4.4% and SK Hynix 4.5%. Korea's finance minister said stabilization measures would be taken if needed.
