Toward energy finance market transition:Does China's oil futures shake up global spots market?

China is breaking through the petrodollar system,establishing RMB-dominating crude oil futures market.The country is achieving a milestone in its transition to energy finance market internationalization.This study explores the price leadership of China's crude oil futures and identifies its price co-movement to uncover whether it truly shakes up the global oil spots market.First,we find that for oil spots under different gravities,China's oil futures is only a net price information receiver from light-,medium-,and heavy-gravity oil spots,but it has a relatively stronger price co-movement with these three spots.Second,for oil spots under different sulfur contents,China's oil futures still has weak price leadership in sweet,neutral,and sour oil spots,but it has strong co-movement with them.Third,for oil spots under different geographical origins,China's oil futures shows price leadership in East Asian and Australian oil spots at the medium-and longrun time scales and strong price co-movement with East Asian,Middle Eastern,Latin American and Australian oil spots.China's oil futures may not have good price leadership in global spots market,but it features favorable price co-movement.