Oil prices added to their already strong gains during the Asian morning. The catalyst was an explosion and fire that shut down the Iraq-Turkey oil pip
Oil
prices added to their already strong gains during the Asian morning.
The catalyst was an explosion and fire that shut down the
Iraq-Turkey oil pipeline. This pipeline normally carries over 100kb/d
(I saw figures up 450kb/d) from northern Iraq into the Mediterranean
port of Ceyhan. The disruption will further add to already tight
supply conditions.
Otherwise
fresh news catalysts were pretty much absent, as were any data of
note. Thursday (Asia time) will bring a potential easing from the
People’s Bank of China with the Loan Prime Rate (LPR) setting for
the month.
There will also be Australian employment figures:
On
Australian labour markets, we did get weekly
payrolls data from Australia today which showed that in the year
since December 19th 2020 payroll wages rose
9%.
One of the factors the Reserve Bank of Australia is assessing is wage
growth in Australia. They’ll take note of this.
Westpac
have provided a chart of job and wage growth – not the surge in
2021:
On
the FX front the majors were range bound and mainly quiet. NZD/USD
popped a few points on a revised forecast for a higher end point for
the Reserve Bank of New Zealand cash rate (3% vs. 2%, see bullets
above).
USD/JPY popped earlier in the session with US yields rising
slightly again. That pop has been unwound.
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