$60 per barrel is the new price, and Moscow would rather not sell—at least not directly. There are at least 19 delayed oil tankers that are slapped with an extra requirement of guarantees by the Turkish Maritime Organization (TMO) to enforce sanctions on Russian oil. Oil tankers, whether old or scrap, have been rising in price as Europe willingly buys Russian oil that is sold through other countries, mainly India and China, at a markup. Russia alone has bought over 100 tankers to transport its oil and practice its sanctions busting activity. While Brent oil is trading at $79 per barrel, Russia’s Ural oil is already trading below its price cap at $57 per barrel. India and China stand to profit from arbitraging oil products if sanctions continue.

EQUITY

S&P 500 dropped more than 2.5% since the start of the week, breaking below uptrend channel formed for the past 2 months. It is starting to look like a reversal in motion as investor expect price to dip below 3500 level going into Q1 next year.

OIL

OPEC+ weekend meeting last week has seen no action or decision made as they take a wait and see approach. Oil price has plunged around 7% since then and the heat of conflict between OPEC+ members to put a cap on Russian oil is continuing into winter. 

CURRENCY

US Dollar Currency index has recovered 1% of its value this week after breaking below its support level and Simple Moving Average (SMA) 200, a significant trend indicator. USD downtrend is expected to continue until interest decision is made on 14th December.

GOLD

XAUUSD started the week with 1.61% drop and eventually recouped some of the loss. It is roughly in line with USD Currency Index market movement. The volatility in Gold dropped as market await clearer cues by the Federal Reserve in its fight against inflation.

CRYPTOCURRENCY

Since the collapse of FTX, the cryptocurrency lender BlockFi has also filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It comes as a result of loaning a huge sum of $680 million to Alameda Research, an investment trading firm with strong ties to FTX.