US-Iran Near Deal in Nuclear Talks
June 9, 2023
The market sold off hard mid-day with WTI crude oil being down nearly three dollars per barrel when news hit that the US and Iran were close to striking a deal for Iran to curtail their nuclear program in exchange for less sanctions which would bring more crude oil to the market. The market rebounded well off those lows but did close down on the day. Of course, we get the report that the White House denied that they are close to any deal with Iran. At the end of the day these energy markets are still trading within their ranges and there is no breakout. The fact that prices did rally off their lows could be called constructive.
Also bearish was the news that initial jobless claims came in higher than expected. Initial claims rose 261,000 and economists were calling for a rise of 236,000. This could potentially be a weekly outlier because of Memorial Day so the next few reports will be watched to see if this corrects itself.
The Fed meets next week, and the market will now focus on what they will do with rates and likely congest here in a tight range as it waits on the Fed meeting.
“Saudi cuts are playing second fiddle to worries about the state of the global economy,” said Stephen Brennock of oil broker PVM. Although he added the Saudi cuts could widen a supply deficit in July.