OIL MARKET IS HEALTHIER
The global oil market is healthier than it looks, signaling that crude's plunge to six-year lows has probably gone too far.
While futures tumbled below $45 a barrel in London for the first time since 2009, Morgan Stanley and Standard Chartered Plc say other measures suggest physical markets for crude have stabilized or even strengthened in recent weeks. China, the world's second-biggest oil consumer, will keep buying extra barrels to fill its strategic reserve this year, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
"While oil fundamentals aren't strong, physical markets do not corroborate the substantial weakness in flat price," New York-based Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Longson said in a report Monday. The "latest oil pricing pressure appears more financial than physical."
A measure of returns from commodities sank to its lowest since 1999 Monday on concern that a slowing economy in China, the world's largest consumer of energy and raw materials, will exacerbate supply gluts. Brent crude, the international benchmark, has dropped more than 30 percent since May on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London. Prices rebounded 3.1 percent to $43.98 a barrel at 11:10 a.m. in London.
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