Hurricanes Harvey and Irma were the big newsmakers last week, with WTI crude oil prices ending the week without a real trend, up 0.8%. The impressive surge in the Canadian dollar helped the price of diesel in our currency to drop more than 2% early on Monday compared with where it closed the previous week.
- After ravaging the Florida Keys and Miami area, Hurricane Irma lost strength on Monday morning and was downgraded to a tropical storm. Damages, which were initially estimated at $200 billion, are now thought to be around $50 billion, which breathed some life into U.S. WTI crude oil prices today.
- Saudi Arabia’s Oil Minister is alleged to have reached an agreement with his Venezuelan counterpart to potentially expand crude oil production cuts beyond March. The member nations of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), as well as other producer nations, including Russia, had agreed to reduce output by around 1.8 million barrels per day until March.
- The USD/CAD pair fell more than 2% last week and it may be attractive for companies that buy their fuel priced in Canadian dollars to lock in their purchasing costs using a hedging strategy.