U.S. Airstrike Kills Iranian General, Stokes Tension
January 3, 2020
The news of today is that overnight the US carrier out an air strike in Baghdad and Qassem Soleimani, one of Iran’s most powerful generals who lead proxy militias that extend the country’s power across the Middle East, was killed in this air strike. Iran’s supreme Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed revenged.
Most news reports are suggesting it is not a matter of if Iran will respond it is just a matter of when and how. They are saying they have to respond against the US or lose face. The retaliation could take many fronts. Cyber-attacks, or attacks against military personnel or assets around the globe. The concern for the markets is that the conflict will escalate and create greater uncertainty.
The energy markets reacted by moving higher after the news broke. Crude is currently up $2.27 per barrel, RBOB gasoline futures are up $0.0597 per gallon and ULSD futures are up $0.0656.
This will be the main focus of the markets today as many will speculate what happens next.
The API inventory report came out on 12-31-2019 and the market gets the DOE numbers this morning.
API called crude stocks down 7.8 million barrels, gasoline stocks were 776,000 barrels and distillates were up 2.8 million barrels.
Expectations for today’s DOE numbers from the Reuters survey are for crude to be down 3.2 million barrels, gasoline stocks to be up 2.1 million barrels and distillates are called up 1.8 million barrels.