During the Asian session, US Oil is currently trading at $101.86 per barrel; Oil prices rose by more than 4.5% on Monday, benefiting from the weakening of the US dollar, as the Federal Reserve cut interest rates aggressively to cool down. In addition, the Energy crisis in Europe and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East also helped the bulls.

Focus on the annual monthly rate of new housing starts in the United States in June and the initial monthly rate of construction permits in the United States in June; API data will be released at 4:30 on Wednesday.

Positive factors affecting oil prices

The US dollar fell from a multi-year high on Monday, supporting commodity prices. Jim Ritterbusch, President of Ritterbusch and Associates LLC, said: "Today‘s strong rise is mainly due to the sharp and general weakness of the US dollar. In the past few weeks, the US dollar has been the key driving force for daily oil price fluctuations." [Gazprom announced that its natural gas supply to Europe suffered force majeure]

In a letter from Gazprom, the company has announced to at least one major customer that its natural gas supply to Europe will encounter force majeure from June 14. The letter said that Gazprom could not fulfill its supply obligations due to "special" circumstances beyond its control. A source stated that this letter involves supplying natural gas to Germany through the North Stream 1 pipeline.

The gas supply problem in Germany may continue until 2024

German media reported in the 18th daily that due to concerns about Russia extending the maintenance period of the "Beixi 1" and even completely cutting off this important gas pipeline, the German federal government believes that this winter there may be emergency situations caused by natural gas shortages in the entire Germany or some federal states, and the problem of natural gas supply shortage in Germany may continue until 2024. In addition, according to the German government, the price of natural gas in Germany is expected to increase by two to three times.

Geopolitical tension Iran claims to have the ability to build a nuclear bomb

According to Al Jazeera TV in Qatar on the 18th, Aviv Kochawi, Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defense Forces, announced that Tel Aviv is "developing military plans to launch attacks against the ‘Iranian nuclear threat‘. On the same day, a senior Iranian government official publicly stated that Iran had the ability to produce nuclear bombs, but had not yet put them into production. Iran and Israel are at loggerheads, and the air over the Middle East is filled with the smell of burning medicine. In response, Middle Eastern media commented that these were all incidents that occurred after the visit of US President Biden, and the tense situation was closely related to Biden‘s trip to the Middle East.

Iran‘s "Tehran Times" reported on the 18th that the head of the Iran Foreign Relations Strategy Committee, Kamal Khalazi, emphasized on the same day: "Iran has full capability to manufacture a nuclear bomb, but we have not decided to do so." Iran‘s nuclear capability is an undeniable fact, "it should be emphasized that Iran is on the nuclear threshold, which is not a secret." Khalazi added, as is well known, Enriching uranium to 20% abundance is‘ quite difficult ‘, but concentrating it to 60% is easy and can be completed within 2-3 days. Therefore, enriching uranium to 90% is not difficult.

On the 19th, Russian President Putin visited Iran and met with Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei. Kremlin spokesperson Peskov stated on the 18th that Russia and Iran will strengthen cooperation to minimize the impact of Western sanctions. He also revealed that as cooperation continues to deepen, the two countries will eventually give up using the US dollar in bilateral transactions. The public opinion in the Middle East generally believes that Putin‘s main goal in attending the "Astala" summit on Syria in Iran is to retaliate against Biden‘s visit to the Middle East, develop comprehensive strategic cooperation with Iran, respond to US sanctions policies, and create a de facto "anti US alliance".

Negative factors affecting oil prices

All three major US stock indices closed lower, dragging down Apple and bank stocks due to a shift from up to down

US stocks closed lower on Monday, after banking stocks took back earlier gains and Apple fell on reports that the company plans to slow down recruitment and spending growth next year. S&P financial stocks began to decline at the end of the trading session, with strong gains at one point after Bank of America and Goldman Sachs announced their results.

Apple reversed its intraday gains, closing 2.1% lower at $147.1. Earlier, Bloomberg News reported, citing insiders, that Apple plans to slow down recruitment and spending growth in some departments next year to cope with potential economic downturns. Goldman Sachs rose 2.5% after reporting a 48% decline in second quarter profits, which was smaller than expected, thanks to a strong fixed income trading unit.

After Federal Reserve officials hinted last week that policymakers may insist on a 75 basis point rate hike, concerns about a 100 basis point rate hike by the end of July have eased. It‘s really difficult to maintain the upward momentum, which is a characteristic of a bear market, "said Ross Mayfield, an investment strategy analyst at Baird

Nine out of the 11 major sectors of the S&P 500 index closed lower, with healthcare and utility stocks experiencing the largest declines and energy stocks experiencing the largest gains. The financial reports of large technology companies to be released next week will be closely monitored, and these companies have been facing significant selling pressure for most of this year.