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U.S. crude climbs to two-week high amid Middle East tension

  • Crude oil prices rose for a third straight day, sparked by a stronger stock market and rising tension between Iran and U.S. allies that threaten to disrupt oil supplies and shipments in the Middle East.
  • Prices jumped as much as 2% before U.S. WTI settled +1.4% to a two-week high $62.87/bbl and Brent closed +1.2% to $72.62/bbl.
  • The Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen carried out several air strikes on areas held by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels after the group claimed responsibility for drone attacks on a major Saudi pipeline earlier this week.
  • "We look for occasional minor skirmishes in the Persian Gulf to maintain significant risk premium for a while," says Jim Ritterbusch of oil trading advisory firm Ritterbusch & Associates, but "we feel that Saudi production will slowly be ramping up in anticipation of a more significant supply disruption."
  • With the focus on geopolitics, oil markets mostly overlooked yesterday's bearish report from the Energy Information Administration that showed U.S.  crude oil inventories hit a 20-month high of 472M barrels.
  • ETFs: USO, XLE, OIL, UWT, UCO, DWT, SCO, BNO, DBO, DTO, USL, OLO, SZO, OLEM, WTIU, OILK, OILX

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