WTI crude oil rallied 1.25% today to settle at $78.87 per barrel. Russia’s oil exports increased by 480,000 last week ahead of the European Union’s fuel ban on Russia. Given that oil prices are expected to increase going forward, it appears that buyers want to snap up as much cheap Russian oil as possible.
Indeed, analysts at RBC (NYSE:RY) believe that oil has found a floor and can only go higher from here. They attributed this to China’s reopening, saying it hasn’t been priced in yet.
Meanwhile, natural gas continues to struggle as it closed little changed at $2.684 to remain near multi-year lows.
When looking at the energy sector as a whole, the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE) has gained over 8% year-to-date, and here is a list of energy stocks that can be influenced by the latest developments in the energy markets.