End of China's "Zero Covid" Policy - Dec 27

[dan_s]

Oil Jumps After China Scraps Inbound Quarantine, Will Reopen Borders Effectively Ending Zero-Covid Regime

BY TYLER DURDEN
MONDAY, DEC 26, 2022 - 06:32 PM
And just like that China's zero-Covid policy is over.

On Monday, Beijing announced that it will remove the country's quarantine requirements for inbound travelers from January 8, dismantling the final remnants of a zero-Covid regime that closed it off from the rest of the world for almost three years, sent its economy in an on again/off again tailspin, and which not only sparked a record surge of new covid infections which have failed to translate into a zombie apocalypse (confirming that covid was never much stronger than the flu) but also has forced China to halt all official covid data reporting after being caught lying one too many times, an unheard of event for China where every "data point" is fake.

Starting Jan. 8, people arriving in China will no longer be quarantined, though they will be required to obtain negative Covid test results within 48 hours of departure. That compares with the current requirement of eight days isolation — five days at a designated quarantine hotel, or central facility, followed by three days at home. At one point this year the quarantine arrival rule required travelers to spend three weeks in a hotel room.

While the market had been pricing in the end of covid zero at some time in late Q1 or early Q2, the accelerated end of China's most defining policy of the post-Covid era has sent oil higher as traders start pricing in the massive commodity demand that will follow a full reopening of China in the days following China's new year.

Read more: https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/oil-j ... vid-regime

MY TAKE: If China actually sticks with the plan announced yesterday and Team Biden quits draining the SPR, we should see a rise in oil prices. EIA accurately reporting the impact of well freeze offs should also send WTI higher.