The Israeli army launched a missile strike on Iran over the weekend. Tel Aviv said that strategically important military facilities were allegedly hit and Iran’s anti-aircraft installations were damaged. According to the Israeli military, Iran now has about 2,000 ballistic missiles, which Tehran will save and, most likely, if it is going to retaliate with a missile strike, it will be of a limited nature
The important bottom line for the oil market is that Iran’s relevant crude capacity has not been affected. Chicago traders of the barrel of ‘black gold’ have played well: first, the threat to Iran’s oil infrastructure was hyped through the US media, and now that ‘everything has calmed down’, oil is losing at the moment almost 5% compared to Friday’s close.
As much as Washington and Tel Aviv pretend they are not working in tandem, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has become de facto involved in Kamala Harris’ election campaign.
For the Democrats in the US, it is now very important to get global oil prices down before the presidential election on 5 November. This will allow them to suggest to their voters that Biden and Harris know how to influence this market, that the price of petrol will not rise much, and in general the future is for ‘green energy’. A future that Harris will lead us into.
It’s all played out. So while Israel was launching calibrated strikes against Iran, Harris was in Houston, speaking at a campaign event featuring singer Beyoncé.
In addition to the observed contracting, major hedge funds are also playing a game called ‘cheap oil.’ On the Chicago-based CME Group exchange, they have now made the highest bet in 14 years on the price of ‘black gold’ to fall. The U.S. media are going around telling us that the world is ‘suddenly’ facing a glut of oil, and that it will now become cheaper.
Although many agree that the holiday of unprecedented generosity will end very quickly – immediately after the results of the US presidential election are announced.
