Energy & precious metals - weekly review and outlook

investing.com:

Investing.com — There are four more weeks to this year’s Labor Day — the timeline typically used to ascertain the peak for summer oil demand; typically, because oil demand itself is so dynamic that it can go any way any time of the year.

In seven weeks, the Federal Reserve will make another decision on interest rates. After benign U.S. jobs growth in July, economists expect the central bank to pause again on its monetary tightening.

But while the pace of U.S. jobs growth is retreating and wage pressures might cool next, energy-fueled inflation could be a new worry for the Fed with crude prices already at three-month highs and threatening to climb further. And so, yes, the Fed could surprise with its rate decision.

The North Atlantic hurricane season officially began in June. But tropical cyclone activity — which can cause damage to oil industry installations in the U.S. Gulf Coast of Mexico -— sometimes occurs as late as end-November. The peak of the Atlantic hurricane season is usually before mid-September, with most activity occurring between mid-August and mid-October.

And by Oct. 4, it’ll be time for the Saudis to decide if they’re going to pull another million barrels per day off their November production. With their mania over cuts to push up barrel prices, the kingdom is expected to continue choking the crude market.

Amid all these is China's oil demand, which still raises a big question mark.

Bloomberg reported earlier this week that China’s appetite for fuels and other oil-derived products such as plastics may have peaked for this year as economic woes in the No.1 oil importer continue to stand in the way of a full rebound from Covid Zero.

While recent headline numbers for Chinese crude imports pointed to robust