Oil bulls lose sight of $90/b as demand worries weigh

Having retraced more than 61.8% of the August-to-September rally, Brent crude oil may now hit $75 before stabilising. While highlighting the risk to demand in our recent Q4 publication, we believe that the market may have jumped the "high price leading to lower demand growth theme" a few months to soon. Not least considering the still unknown impact of US sanctions on Iran’s oil export capability and Saudi Arabia’s ability to meet any shortfall as promised.

Sentiment in the crude oil market has surprisingly quickly turned from the “$95 in a matter of weeks” on Iran sanctions to long liquidation and despair. The risk of a major reversal was seen as soon as Brent crude oil in early October broke above $80/b and surged to almost $87/b. During this rally hedge funds turned sellers, especially of WTI crude oil, instead of buying into the strength as they normally do.  It highlights once again how crude oil is often traded with a macroeconomic  view instead of one purely focusing on crude oil supply and demand fundamentals. As the price of oil rose so too did the risk to the future outlook for demand  with many emerging market economies already being troubled by a heavy load of dollar debt at a time of rising funding costs and a stronger dollar. 

The combined net-long in WTI and Brent crude oil has dropped to an almost 13-month low at 652k lots and is now, despite the focus on supply disruption, down by 40% since hitting a record 1.1m lots on March 30. WTI crude oil has led the selling due to rising US production and the seasonal slowdown in demand leading to rising crude oil stocks. The net-long in WTI crude oil dropped to 243k lots in the week to October 16, and has now halved since March.