Early morning crude oil price hike: it was due to a drone attack!
At 04:27 GMT on Monday, Brent crude price went up by
$1.09, a rise in 1.8%. WTI crude, meanwhile, gained $1.28. Analysts may think
the stimulus package announced by the Biden administration and the hopes of
success of the vaccination programmes across the world are behind the spike in
crude price in the morning hours in Asia.
It, however, was triggered off by a drone operation
aimed at Saudi Arabia by Houthi rebels. According to Saudis, a drone, laden
with explosives, was detected by the Saudi interceptors on Sunday night; they
say it was destroyed on detection in the Saudi skies.
This has been the pattern whenever Houthi drones are
detected in the Saudi airspace; analysts are more worried about the potential
for a flare-up between Iran, the backers of Houthi rebels, and Saudi Arabia.
Since the drone was destroyed by Saudi Arabia before
it damaged the intended target, markets breathed a sigh of relief and the price
movements since then reflect the trend.
Asian shares rose rapidly, shortly after the
short-lived spike, triggered off by a knee-jerk reaction on the part of
investors. Investors are confident that the success so far on the vaccine front
will continue to snowball in the coming weeks and so will the traffic on the
roads.
Moreover, a strong demand from China and India is on
track, with their economies being back to where they were a year ago.
All in all, there is plenty of encouraging news for
oil investors to digest at the moment and the markets reflect the trend.