Renewed attacks on oil infrastructure in the Middle East and fading hopes of diplomatic progress to end the disruption in Strait of Hormuz weighed on crude oil prices at the onset of the new week. Amidst the shutdown of Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline, the postponement of talks between Iran and several Gulf nations as well as the curbs in supply of crude oil from the Middle East, both the crude oil price benchmarks have jumped around 4 percent.
The climb in global crude oil prices after a brief hiatus on Friday also coincided with anxiety ahead of the interest rate decisions by the Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan. Markets expect both the Fed and the BoJ to raise rates by quarter percentage points, in an attempt to combat inflationary pressures, attributed to a great extent to the spike in crude oil prices.
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