Why Oil May Regain Upward Momentum

Dynamics in the global oil markets have shown little change over the past couple of weeks with pessimism still high and hedge funds still leaning towards the short side of the market. Over the past week, Brent prices remained range-bound in the $83.45-83.60/bbl range with the prolonged sideways price movement pushing volatility lower.  The realized annualized 30-trading-day front-month Brent volatility clocked in at just 16.9% at settlement on 20 May, a 2.1 ppt w/w reduction while the 10-trading-day volatility measure came in 7.4 ppt w/w lower…