Crude oil prices varied, at the end of trading today, Thursday, May 4 (2023), as US West Texas crude fell, while Brent crude rose above $ 72, in an attempt to compensate for losses that amounted to more than 9% during the previous 3 sessions.
This comes as demand concerns among major consumers outweighed signs that the US may halt interest rate increases.
Crude oil prices today
At the end of the session, Brent crude futures, for delivery in July 2023, rose 0.2%, to record $72.50 a barrel.
While US West Texas Intermediate crude futures, for June 2023 delivery, fell by 0.1%, to record $68.56 a barrel, according to data seen by the specialized energy platform.
Crude oil prices ended their trading, yesterday, Wednesday, May 3, with a decline of more than 4%, to continue bleeding losses for the third consecutive session.
Analysis of the price of a barrel of oil
Crude oil prices fell this week amid signs of weak manufacturing growth in China, the world’s largest oil importer, and after the United States, the world’s largest oil user, raised interest rates to their highest levels since 2007, on Wednesday; What threatens future economic growth there.
Since Friday, Brent crude has fallen more than 9%, and earlier in the day fell to $71.28 a barrel. WTI is down nearly 11% from Friday to Wednesday’s close, and earlier in the day Thursday it fell to $63.64.
However, with some positive growth in the US service sector and expectations that production cuts by major producers that began this month will limit supply, investors and analysts are starting to buy back into the market.
“Oil is starting to find some support, after overcoming all the bad supply and demand news,” said OANDA analyst Edward Moya, according to Reuters.
while the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point as expected; He has indicated that he may pause further increases to give officials time to assess the implications of recent bank failures and wait for clarity on the row over raising the US debt ceiling.
The collapse of the third US bank since March, driven by its inability to manage high interest rates, also affected financial markets in general.
OPEC+ cuts
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies began; Including Russia, in a group known as OPEC+, voluntary production cuts of about 1.66 million barrels per day at the beginning of this month, and is expected to support this market going forward at peak summer demand.
“It appears that OPEC+ will have to finally show that it can meet its production cut quotas and may be in a position to signal more cuts to come,” Moya said.
Investors are also awaiting developments from the European Central Bank, which is set to raise interest rates for the seventh consecutive meeting on Thursday.
Chinese demand concerns continue to weigh on the market, especially after a survey of the private sector on Thursday showed that factory activity fell unexpectedly in April due to weak domestic demand.
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