Energy stocks fall with oil as US weighs release

Bloomberg

Energy stocks dropped with oil prices as investors weighed reports that the Biden administration is considering a massive release of crude from US reserves to fight inflation.
Stocks in Europe are set for the first quarterly decline since 2020. Shares in big US energy companies declined in premarket trading, while index futures mostly advanced, Treasuries held gains and the dollar ticked up.
Reports that Washington is preparing a plan to release roughly a million barrels of oil a day helped reverse a
rebound in crude. French inflation accelerated more than expected to reach another record, following unexpectedly high readings from
Germany and Spain.
Officials from Ukraine and Russia are set to resume talks via video conference on Friday, according to a Ukrainian negotiator, though
there was no immediate
confirmation from Moscow.
Shares in Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Occidental Petroleum Corp. declined in premarket trading. Brent prices dropped 4.3% and West Texas Intermediate was down 4.9%.
Russian equities advanced as the nation partly lifted the short-selling ban on local stocks on Thursday, removing one of the measures that helped limit the declines in the market after a record long shutdown.
Global stocks are on track for their worst quarter in two years amid concerns about a growth slowdown, with the war in Ukraine driving volatility in commodity markets. Investors are also unnerved by the prospect of a sharper withdrawal of stimulus, as the fastest inflation in a generation forces central banks to become more aggressive with interest-rate hikes. Markets now see a strong chance the Federal Reserve will lift rates by a half point at its May meeting.
“Aside from quarter-end considerations, oil is very much the center of attention,” Simon Ballard, chief economist at First Abu Dhabi Bank, wrote in a note to investors. Still, “all the usual suspects are still in play, keeping the market in check, including the specter of the Fed pursuing an aggressive path of monetary policy normalisation over the coming months.”
Friday’s video discussions between Ukraine and Russia would follow in-person talks this week in Turkey that didn’t produce a short-term cease-fire or major progress towards a broader peace deal.
Ukraine’s negotiator said the hope was to have enough agreed on paper in another week to be able to move toward a meeting
between President Vladimir Putin and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Separately, Germany said Russia has backed off its demand that natural gas purchases be made in rubles, in an apparent de-escalation.