Brent futures saw a slight dip this morning, with the market opening at $76.61/bbl at 06:00 GMT and dropping to lows of $76.05/bbl at 08:30 GMT, prices then rose steadily to $76.32/bbl levels at 10:00 GMT.
Today in the news, The UN is preparing to vote on a ceasefire in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict today as the humanitarian crisis reaches its peak since the conflict started 2 months ago. The general assembly is likely to offer a draft resolution for a ceasefire agreement, with analysts expecting the resolution will call for an immediate humanitarian truce, although the assembly is not politically binding, it carries political weight on geopolitical tensions. As the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has already been priced into the oil markets, it is less than likely that a call for de-escalation will have an impact on crude prices, especially with the US security council having vetoed the same resolution earlier in UN security council. Although Iranian backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have attacked another ship today in the Red Sea, and pledge to continue to do so until the proper humanitarian aid has been sent to Gaza. The ship, a commercial vessel by the name of M/T Strinda was said to have been hit by a missile 60 miles from the Bab el Mandeb chokepoint, after its crew ignored warnings of danger of the Yemeni coast. The UK office of maritime trade sent a warning to all ships in the Red Sea today, and Israel said it deployed one of its most sophisticated war ships to secure the area.
With news in the afternoon pronouncing a continuation of Middle Eastern tensions with no real change, midday Brent front month and 6 month spreads continued their downwards trend, trading at -$0.20/bbl and -$0.02/bbl respectively.
