Oil commentary - 17th May 2021

Morning all and I hope everyone had a nice weekend. Brent is trading this morning down 0.14 at $68.57 and WTi is trading at $65.35 down 0.02. I make no apologies for this but I'm going to get patriotic for a moment. It was the FA Cup final on Saturday in the UK and Leicester beat Chelsea. Excellent it was too. There were crowds, and there was a magic moment when the owner of Leicester City FC came on the pitch and was presented with the trophy in honour of his Father who sadly perished in an accident a few years ago. Then yesterday we had an English golfer called Richard Bland claim his first win at his 478th attempt. 478 attempts? If that doesn't show grit and determination, I don't know what does. Talking about determination, let's talk crude oil, shall we? Well, we're here, maybe we shouldn’t be, but we are, at nearly $70 on and surely to break through it regardless of any fundamental bearish news whatsoever. As the UK eases restrictions, Singapore reimposes them. As does Taiwan. Oh, and Japan. Delhi extends curfews until the end of the month as well. Oh sorry, as does Turkey. Borders continue to be shut yet markets continue to ignore any bearish sentiment this may bring. The WHO this weekend said that the second year of Covid-19 was set to be "far more deadly than the first". Again, I insert the caveat that I'm not being negative here but a realist. We're in the middle of May and all hope is pinned on the second half of this year providing that stella return to "pre pandemic" levels of demand. Is that realistic? No, it's not. The market is running on fumes in my opinion, and weak US economic data is evidencing the same and Chinese retail sales rose 17.7% in April on a year ago, short of forecasts for a rise of 24.8%. Does the market care? Not a bit of it. MORE FREE MONEYYYYY! Good day, and week to all.