Market Drivers – European Session 28-2-2022

Oil prices jumped on Monday as Western allies imposed more sanctions on Russia and cut off certain Russian banks from the global SWIFT system for interbank payments, potentially causing severe disruption to its oil exports.

Brent crude rose $4.16, or 4.3 percent, to $102.09, after hitting a high of $105.07 a barrel in early trading.

US West Texas Intermediate crude rose $4.19, or 4.6 percent, to $95.78 a barrel, after reaching $99.10 in early trading.

The US Goods Trade deficit widened to $107.63B in January, a new record high, much larger than the expected monthly deficit of $99.6B and much larger than December’s deficit of $100.47B, according to data from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis released on Monday.

Canada’s Current Account was a C$ 0.8B deficit in Q4 2021, according to data released by Statistics Canada on Monday. That was well below the expected surplus of C$ 4.8B and marked a drop from Q3’s C$ 0.8B surpluses.