Oil prices are managing to extend the upward move and have recovered most of the losses from the November drop as Brent broke above the $84 level today after gaining over 4% this week and as WTI continues to hover around $81. While oil has been increasingly volatile lately, some concerns regarding production capacities and an improving pandemic situation are adding pressure as traders await today’s department of energy inventory report from the US. If the DOE report confirms yesterday’s API data, which showed a slight drop, it could lead to renewed price pressure and potential supply issues as general inflation remains a key topic of concern. On the other hand, an increase in inventories could alleviate some of this pressure and potentially bring some more fluctuations in the short term.
JD trading update shows strong performance
While JD’s trading update showed that total revenue for the twenty-two week period to 1 January 2022 increased more than 10% compared to the same period in 2020, the company continued to feel the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the disruption of the supply chain operations. JD managed to mostly offset this thanks to sustained positive nature of consumer demand through the second half to date. This has given management confidence that the group headline profit before tax for the year to January 2022 will be ahead of current market expectations. Despite this seemingly positive report, it will be important to see if the company will manage to continue this positive performance and will be able to to deal with any unforeseen factors potentially brought by further restrictions or a change in central bank policies.
