• Oil moved in a narrow $49-$51 range early this week before settling near $49.70 Thursday afternoon. On the bearish side, Russia and Iraq offered uncooperative sound bites regarding production cuts which added to skepticism that exporters will be able to agree on and enforce a deal creating a meaningful reduction in supply. Sustained output gains from Nigeria (currently at 1.8m bpd) and Libya (580k bpd) also helped add to congestion in the Atlantic driving freight rates higher while brent’s m1-m2 spread dropped to a contract low of more than $1 contango. Reuters reported that Saudi Arabia and other GCC members made a proposal to cut output by 4% from their recent record marks but Russia refused to participate in the effort beyond a production freeze. More positively, Bloomberg noted on Thursday that Brazil would join producers in Vienna this weekend and may be open to joining a rollback in supply.

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Moody’s Capital Markets Research issued a damning verdict on Deutsche Bank earlier this week. In a research report put together by the credit agency’s ‘Analytics’ research division, Moody’s analysts write that Deutsche Bank expected default frequency remains at one of the highest levels in the banking industry, despite the bank’s efforts to shore up its capital position.

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