Archives of “March 2020” month

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Coronavirus – US states declaring State of Emergency – count now at 8

  
  Analysis

CA, FL, KY, MD, NY, OR, UT, WA

All have declared a state of emergency over the outbreak.
Testing kits still sparse
 US FDA is still withholding approval to even test for the virus from health care facilitities that are ready to test.
China initially denied there was a problem, now the US administration is going down that path. Tweets do not contain the spread of infection.
CA, FL, KY, MD, NY, OR, UT, WA

Saudi Arabia plans to increase oil output next month, well above 10m barrels a day

  
  Analysis
Bloomberg report on the planned output cut citing “people familiar with the conversations, who asked not to be named to protect commercial relations”
  • plans to increase oil output in April
  • going well above 10 million barrels a day
  • Saudi Arabia has privately told some market participants it could raise production much higher if needed, even going to a record of 12 million barrels a day
Current Saudi production is about 9.7 millions a day
“That’s the oil market equivalent of a declaration of war,” said a commodities hedge fund manager, asking not to be named due to the sensitivity of the situation.
Back up the truck!
Hard on the heels of Aramco slashing the price of its crude

Coronavirus – New York declares a state of emergency

  
  Analysis
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Governor Cuomo of US state New York has declared a state of emergency due to cov1 COVID-19.

The declaration allows the state to speed up the purchasing of supplies, hiring of workers to assist local health departments
  • “You know what’s worse than the virus? The anxiety,” Mr. Cuomo said, noting that most patients would suffer mild or no symptoms. (NYT citing the Gov.)
As of posting the number of confirmed cases in the state is 76.
Testing has been woefully inadequate right across the US, the federal administration has been tardy to respond, more concerned with the stock market than people’s health
  • around 6000 tests have been administered (the US population is circa 330 million)
The US FDA said Saturday that 2.1m coronavirus tests will have been shipped to non-public labs by Monday as the response finally begins to ramp up.
US President Trump is at his resort in Florida this weekend where he will get an update.
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new york coronavirus

Saudi Arabia has slashed its oil price for all crude

  
  Analysis
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State oil giant Saudi Aramco statement on Saturday – cuts its official selling price for April for all its crude grades to all destinations

UPDATE – news about also Saudi plans to ramp up output, to well in excess of 10m bpd – I’ll post more on this separately
  • its Arab light crude oil to the United States cut to a discount of $3.75 per barrel, down $7 a barrel from March
  • to Northwestern Europe to a discount of $10.25 per barrel to Ice Brent, down $8 a barrel
Comes in the wake of the crumbling of OPEC+ plans late in the week, the OPEC/Russia pact expired without further agreement after 3 years in place.
State oil giant Saudi Aramco statement on Saturday - cuts its official selling price for April for all its crude grades to all destinations

Coronavirus – Italy to lock down the Milan region

  
  Analysis

Italy will introduce measure to severely curtail movement and activity until April 3 according to a draft decree cited:

  • This will impact around 16 million people
  • people will be stopped from entering or exiting the most-affected areas
  • movement within will be permitted only for “non-deferrable” business or health reasons
  • public events, religious ceremonies and work meetings to be suspended
  • schools, museums, swimming pools and theaters will close
  • Bars and restaurants will have to make sure patrons keep at least a metre apart
Italy will introduce measure to severely curtail movement and activity until April 3 according to a draft decree cited:
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