Crude oil prices remain range-bound

Crude oil prices remain range-bound. Front-month WTI crude oil briefly climbed from $77.10/bbl to $77.46/bbl in Asian trade
before slipping back to $77.02/bbl in electronic trade as the greenback strengthened from $1.5027 to $1.4973 ahead of the
European session.
Growth data out of Japan shows a 36% y/y increase in vehicle sales in November — following a 12.6% y/y increase in October.
In China, the PMI manufacturing index was unchanged, at 55.2 in November — remaining above the 50 threshold level,
which signals that China’s manufacturing sector is still growing. However, this failed to bolster the front-end of the WTI
crude oil forward curve, as crude oil prices remain closely correlated to the greenback. The rolling correlation (on a 5-day
basis) between front-month WTI crude and the trade-weighted US dollar is at -0.66 this morning, albeit lower than yesterday’s
-0.74 rolling correlation.