Oil Producers Are Curbing Supplies. Expect The Oil Rally To Continue

Increased global demand, together with recent supply cuts, could spark a more than 20% rally in oil prices this year, experts say.

“We expect prices to peak at $65 and remain in the range $55 to $65,” says Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities Corp. in New York.Futures contracts for light sweet crude were recently fetching $53 a barrel on the Commodities Mercantile Exchange.

Traders wanting to profit from the potential rally should consider buying June-dated futures contracts for light sweet crude on the CME. Alternatively, they could try purchasing the Invesco DB Oil exchange-traded fund (ticker: DBO), which holds a basket of crude oil futures. The fund has gained 7.5% this year through Jan. 11. It lost 21% in 2020, according to Morningstar.

This year crude has already rallied about 9%, due in part to an unexpectedly bullish move by OPEC+ (the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries plus Russia) earlier this month.

The world’s second-largest producer, Saudi Arabia, surprised the world by announcing it would cut production in February and March by one million barrels a day (bpd). That move more than offset a combined 75,000 bpd increase for the same period by Russia and Kazakhstan.

Overall, the OPEC+ cut should help put a floor under prices, especially given that the member states will probably stick to their quotas. “We don’t see material risk to the group’s [OPEC’s] cohesion,” Barclays said in a recent report. Historically, OPEC members have often failed to stick to their production quotas, making price stability an issue.

Meanwhile, demand from China is higher than pre-pandemic levels. In the third and fourth quarters of 2020, the country consumed 13.7 million and 14 million bpd, respectively. That compares to an average of 13.3 million in 2019, according to OPEC.

Traders will likely bet on a rebound in demand for the rest of the world as Covid-19 vaccines allow people to return to business as usual. “My sense is that as we get back to a more normal society, we get a massive surge in people wanting to go flying and do things they could do before the pandemic,” says Jon Rigby, an oil analyst at UBS London. Such a scenario would mean an increase in oil demand, with air and land travel resulting in higher fuel consumption.

Oil prices will get an additional boost from a softer dollar. “My general view is that we won’t have a stronger dollar,” says Steve Hanke, professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University. “Automatically, a little bit weaker dollar will add a little bit of strength to the oil price.” Oil gets priced in dollars, which means that in general, when the dollar weakens, crude prices tend to rally.

A price rally will likely be tempered by increasing supply from shale producers in North America, says Hogan of National Securities. While the Biden administration will likely reduce drilling on federal lands, there is still a lot of potential supply ready to tap when crude prices approach $60. “There is plenty for us in the next two years to increase our supply with hydraulic fracking,” he says.

Buying any commodity futures contract is a risky endeavour, and oil futures are no exception. The price of crude is subject to influences by national governments, geopolitical upheaval, and changes in the global economy. All these can result in significant price volatility.

Despite that, the odds looked stacked in favour of a rally in crude prices over the next few months. “We see prices going higher, if not meaningfully higher,” says Daryl Jones, director of research at Hedgeye Risk Management.

The stock market had a decent summer. Investors are bracing for a bumpier fall.

In the past couple of months, equity investors cheered soaring profits at big companies, shrugged off jitters in the bond market and nudged megacap tech shares back near records.

Now, as the post-Labor Day stretch begins, a number of new challenges lie ahead: ever-shifting odds of an interest-rate increase from the Federal Reserve. Sky-high expectations after a stunning earnings season. The persistent threat of higher consumer prices as fighting in the Middle East drags on.

“You’re moving from this earnings-driven market to this macro-driven market with the Fed, inflation and interest rates in focus,” said Keith Lerner, chief investment adviser for Truist Advisory Services. “It tends to be a choppier period.”

Historically, every major U.S. stock index experiences its worst average return in September. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has slid an average 1.1% in the ninth month of the year, in data that dates back to the 19th century. The S&P 500 has seen the same average decline—and for every September dating back to 1928, the benchmark ends the month lower more than half of the time.

Analysts caution against reading too much into those seasonal patterns. But in recent weeks, new reasons for investor caution have emerged. One of the largest: the looming threat of an interest-rate increase from the Fed, which announces its next policy decision on Sept. 16.

Chairman Kevin Warsh’s decision to ditch forward guidance and take more of his cues from markets has muddied the waters for investors when it comes to monetary policy. That has left traders scouring Fed governor speeches and economic-data reports for clues on the central bank’s next move.

“There’s going to be a lot of eyes on those numbers,” said John Luke Tyner, head of fixed income and portfolio manager at Aptus Capital Advisors.

The past couple of weeks offered just one example of how frequently those expectations can change. After Warsh struck a hawkish tone during remarks on Aug. 28, the odds of a hike at the Fed’s next meeting jumped from 35% before the speech to 58%, according to CME FedWatch data.

On Thursday, Fed governor Christopher Waller made a case for leaving rates where they are. Interest-rate futures showed coin-flip odds between a hike and a hold. Then Friday’s robust jobs report amped up rate-hike bets once more, back to a roughly 60% chance of higher rates after the meeting.

“Rates have really been driving the car for equities the last few weeks,” said Ross Mayfield, an investment strategist at Baird.

That uncertainty comes as an unruly bond market could put pressure on stocks. Treasury yields have marched higher for much of the summer, driven by concerns about rising oil prices, growing U.S. budget deficits and a deluge of tech-company bonds now competing for investors’ cash. Last week, the rout went global, pushing yields to multiyear highs in Japan, Germany and the U.K.

Higher bond yields can drag on stock prices and lift borrowing costs for companies and consumers across the economy.

Rising prices remain the top concern for bond traders, and continued fighting between the U.S. and Iran has done little to ease those worries. The national average price of diesel climbed to a record of $5.850 on Friday, according to AAA. That is up from $3.712 a year ago.

Investors will get more insight on the path of prices this week, with the much-awaited consumer-price index report due Friday and a reading on producer prices Thursday.

With another blockbuster earnings season in the books, some analysts have also warned that any boost from the third-quarter reports due in the coming months could be minimal. Back-to-back quarters of standout profits have raised expectations and made it especially difficult to impress traders. Custom-chip company Broadcom, for example, said Wednesday that it more than tripled its earnings and nearly doubled its revenue. Shares slipped 2.7% the next session.

Many analysts note there are plenty of reasons not to panic. The economy is in impressive shape, thanks to a healthy labor market and the rippling effects of the artificial-intelligence investment boom. Profits are booming at America’s biggest companies. The Cboe Volatility Index has dropped to its lowest levels of 2026. Credit spreads are tight, a sign bond investors aren’t concerned about economic conditions that could hurt companies.

But the mood has shifted from the euphoria that felt tangible when the Nasdaq was notching back-to-back records early this summer. The question, Mayfield said, is whether the fundamentals that have bolstered the bull market so far can stretch the rally into 2027.

“There are more anxieties or uncertainties about the backdrop,” he said. “It does feel like a transitional moment.”

Oil Producers Are Curbing Supplies. Expect The Oil Rally To Continue

Investors are bracing for a bumpier fall stock market due to shifting odds of a Federal Reserve interest-rate increase and other macro challenges.