Update: Brent just passed $125
Asia-Pacific Tapis Crude Oil tends to be the benchmark grade for oil and gasoline pricing throughout AsiaPac. As WTI cracks $109, the Tapis crude spot price has just seen the largest 3-week rise since last February and is back to July 2008 highs - over $134. In dollars. This seems like perfectly bad timing for China's RRR cut last week, just as real inflation starts to flare in the real economy, and perhaps helps explains Gold's surge as China unapologetically unleashes inflationary pressures.
Tapis Crude has broken out (over $134) and back to JUL08 levels...
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...and the rise is the quickest in a year...
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Charts: Bloomberg
h/t Geoffrey