Brent crude holds $80 but remains unimpressed by voluntary OPEC action

As covered in several updates here yesterday, the price action across the oil markets was extremely volatile and unpredictable. The fact, that in essence OPEC has delivered an output cut in excess of 2 million BPD has not perhaps had the effect it was designed to achieve. The reason for that is because the majority of that cut is on a voluntary basis and history over many decades has never seen that adhered to effectively. However, on this occasion the markets will have to wait and see how that plays out. So, the price of February Brent crude fell from an earlier session high at $84.61 to a low at $80.01. That low was covered in an update here at the time and since then the price has rebounded back close to $82 later yesterday afternoon. However it has slipped backwards again since and earlier today it fell to a low at $80.13. The high since then has been set at $80.83 which is not exactly convincing. It is currently trading at $80.57