Brent Oil Futures spiked 20% over the weekend after the facilities of Saudi Arabia’s state oil producer were attacked on Saturday causing the country to temporarily close down as much as 5% of global oil production.
The move was significantly more pronounced because of thin weekend liquidity but volumes have picked up since the London market opened and the price has settled at around $65.60, up 8.9%. More price shocks could be in the offing particularly after President Trump said that the US is locked at loaded, waiting to hear from Saudi Arabia on their views about the party behind the attack.
Not much surprise than that oil and utility companies are rallying in London as is BAE Systems (LON:BAES), the UK weapons manufacturer. Still, overall the FTSE 100 is trading lower, weighed down by investment firms and airlines.
China economic data upsets Asian markets
Asian markets proved equally cautious, upset more by comments from the Chinese Premier than the rally in oil prices. Premier Li Keqiang warned that it will be very difficult for China to grow at 6% or more this year given the current state of the global economy and his predictions were further borne out by the country’s industrial production data which were released later and showed a slowdown to the slowest rate since the early 1990s of only 4.4%, significantly below expectations of 5.2%.
UK September house prices slip
Brexit turmoil has squeezed UK house sellers into a corner causing prices to slip by a small margin for the first time in nine years.
There is little to support the pound at present and the currency gave up nearly half a percent against the dollar and is weaker 0.36% against the euro this morning.