Oil prices rose early on Monday after the U.S. House passed the stimulus package, and another COVID-19 vaccine was approved for use in the United States.
As of 10:23 a.m. ET, WTI Crude prices were up 0.59 percent at $61.88 and Brent Crude was up 0.78 at $64.94.
Following a slump on Friday, oil prices recovered on Monday, after the U.S. House of Representatives passed on Saturday President Joe Biden’s proposed $1.9-trillion COVID relief package, which now needs Senate approval.
The progress in the stimulus package approval – after weeks of impasses – lifted sentiment on the markets on Monday, including the oil market.
In addition, Johnson & Johnson said on Saturday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had issued Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for its single-dose COVID-19 vaccine. Johnson & Johnson aims to ship enough single-shot vaccines by the end of March to enable the full vaccination of more than 20 million people in the U.S., and to deliver 100 million single-shot vaccines to the U.S. during the first half of 2021.
The progress in the U.S. coronavirus relief package and vaccines improved the market outlook for the U.S. economy and the global economy at large.
Moreover, February PMI data from IHS Markit signaled a marked upturn in the health of the U.S. manufacturing sector.
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“Another month of strong production growth suggests that the US manufacturing sector is close to fully recovering the output lost to the pandemic last year, and a renewed surge in optimism suggests the recovery has much further to run,” said Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at IHS Markit.
Surprisingly good economic data came out of Germany, where manufacturing saw strong growth in February, thanks to exports, IHS Markit’s PMI survey showed, despite the lockdown in Europe’s biggest economy.
This week the oil market will be closely watching the OPEC+ meeting on Thursday and comments from top officials before that to gauge where the oil-producing alliance will be going with its oil supply policies from April.
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By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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