• Oil price flirts with a break below $71.00 ahead of US PMIs and Jackson Hole. 
• Market concern grows on the question if OPEC made a policy mistake in its earlier meeting.    
• The US Dollar Index hits a new low for 2024 and flirts with the 101.00 barrier.

Oil prices eke out a very slight gain on Thursday, trying to find a bottom to the sharp sell-off seen in the last four trading sessions. The decline in prices can be attributed to concerns emerging on the supply side and despite the very large drawdown on US stockpile numbers reported on Wednesday. The supply-related concern comes after a Bloomberg report mentioned a Russian shadow fleet of worn-out tankers that are moving Russian sanctioned Oil across the globe. This shows that there is far more supply out there than markets are measuring, which doesn’t help prices when combined with a lacklustre demand outlook. 

The US Dollar Index (DXY), which tracks the performance of the US Dollar against six major currencies, gets caught in what one could call a “perfect storm”. After an already significant correction this week, more losses were added on Wednesday after the biggest downward revision in Nonfarm Payrolls in over a decade and the Federal Reserve (Fed) Minutes of the Fed’s July meeting revealed calls for a rate cut already back then. Not many, near nill, bullish elements seem to be able to support the Greenback.