Crude oil is recording further gains today of 0.37% and 0.46% for the main benchmarks Brent and WTI respectively.
The oil market gains today came with the acceleration of the growth of Chinese manufacturing activities in March at the highest pace since February of last year, supporting the growth of new businesses and an increase in the level of confidence about the future, which led to an expansion of purchasing activities in addition to the ability to support sales with the decline in the prices of inputs.
Today we saw the March reading of the Caixin/S&P Global Manufacturing PMI at 51.1, which represents growth for the fifth consecutive month in manufacturing activities.
This growth in factory activities comes after the surprising and very positive growth in industrial production in February, while this set of positive figures reinforces hope that the manufacturing sector will be able to restore solid growth, which will be one of the most important factors to support oil prices this year.
On the other hand, energy markets are optimistic about the start of the process of lowering interest rates next June, especially after the slowdown in inflation growth in the United States, as was expected in February, according to the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure, which is the Personal Consumer Expenditure Price Index (PCE), specifically the core reading, which recorded a growth of 2.8 percent. % down from 2.9%. While the markets did not react to this data last Friday, with the US markets on holiday.
