The oil market and the U.S. stock futures were calm early on Monday morning after the U.S. was rattled by the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania this weekend.
Investigation showed that the shooter acted alone – a development that prevented a pronounced negative effect on U.S. markets.
S&P 500 and NASDAQ futures were rising in pre-market trading on Monday, pointing to higher opening, as markets do not appear rattled by the shooting at Trump’s rally.
As of 7:50 EDT on Monday, the oil markets were calm and almost flat on the day, pressured slightly down by a strong U.S. dollar, which tends to drag oil prices down because it makes oil more expensive for holders of other currencies.
The U.S. benchmark, WTI Crude, traded at $82.07, down by 0.15%.
The international benchmark, Brent Crude, had also barely budged and traded at $84.92, down by 0.16% on the day.
“USD strength following the attempted assassination of former president Trump over the weekend is putting pressure on oil prices in early morning trading today,” ING commodities strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey wrote in a note on Monday.
During the shooting in Pennsylvania, Trump was not seriously injured and traveled on Sunday to Milwaukee. There he will formally receive later this week the nomination of the Republican National Convention as the Republican presidential candidate.
President Joe Biden has ordered an investigation into the shooting, in which one person in the crowd was killed and two others were left wounded before U.S. Secret Service agents shot and killed the 20-year-old shooter.
The finding that the shooter acted alone may have limited a strong negative reaction in early trading on Monday, Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist for LPL Financial, told The Wall Street Journal.
Meanwhile, fundamentals in oil remain supportive, but resurfacing concerns about a slowdown in Chinese oil demand growth are weighing down on prices.
China’s imports of crude oil slumped by 11% in June from a record-high in the same month of 2023, amid tepid fuel demand and lower run rates at independent refiners.
In its monthly report last week, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said that underwhelming Chinese consumption is slowing down growth in global oil demand.
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“Oil consumption in China, long the engine of global oil demand growth, contracted in both April and May, and is now assessed marginally below year earlier levels in 2Q24,” the Paris-based agency said, adding that Chinese demand for industrial fuels and petrochemical feedstocks was particularly weak.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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