Brent oil prices rose during early Friday tradingRicardo Evangelista, Pierre Veyret

OIL

Brent is the leading global price benchmark for Atlantic basin crude oils. It is used to set the price of two-thirds of the world's internationally traded crude oil supplies. It is one of the two main benchmark prices for purchases of oil worldwide, the other being West Texas Intermediate (WTI).

Brent oil prices rose during early Friday trading. The markets have shrugged aside the potential effect of storms in the US, which may bring an important part of the country‘s transport network to a standstill and therefore reduce demand for fuel – a scenario that would normally be bearish for the price of the barrel. Investors seem to be more worried about the impact of the newly imposed price cap on Russian oil exports. This morning’s rise in prices reflects the growing concern felt by traders over Moscows reaction to the new sanctions. Russia may react by cutting its oil output, a scenario that would create supply-side pressures and could lead to further increases in the price of the barrel.

EUROPEAN SHARES

Equities drifted in Europe on Friday, extending overnight losses in Asia while US futures also point to a bearish open for the last significant trading session of 2022. This morning‘s slew of mixed macro data from the old continent, including the French PPI, Spanish GDP and Italian business and consumer confidence, combined with usual profit-taking moves ahead of the year-end, are keeping risk appetite under pressure so far. Even if we don’t expect this trend to significantly change today, more market volatility is likely to be spotted in the afternoon as investors await major data releases from the US, featuring the core durable goods orders, new home sales, and the inflation report from the Core PCE Price Index.

To this day, the STOXX-50 remains trading in its short-term triangle chart pattern following a failure to clear the 3,888 pts level yesterday. A break-out of the 3,800-pts mark could lead prices further down towards 3,735 pts, 3,675 pts and 3,645 pts by extension.