Oil Edges Up on Trade Talk Hopes
17 August 2018 - 09:13PM
Dow Jones News
By Christopher Alessi
LONDON--Oil prices rose Friday on hopes of thawing trade
tensions between the U.S. and China, but the energy complex
remained under pressure due to a stronger dollar and building U.S.
crude inventories.
Brent crude, the global benchmark, was up 0.49% at $71.78 a
barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange. On the New York
Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate futures were up 0.27%
at $65.64 a barrel.
Prices have been weighed down this week by the Turkish currency
crisis, a stronger dollar, signs of weaker global demand and an
unexpected rise in U.S. crude stockpiles. However, buyers returned
to the oil market after the U.S. and China said Thursday they would
resume talks over a trade dispute after two months of deadlock.
"Although oil prices rose yesterday, they recouped only some of
the losses they had chalked up the day before," said analysts at
Commerzbank.
"Brent is thus facing its third consecutive weekly loss [and]
WTI even looks set to be down for the seventh week running," the
analysts wrote in a note Friday.
U.S. crude inventories rose by 6.8 million barrels to 414.2
million barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration
said Wednesday.
The dollar, which generally has an inverse relationship with
dollar-denominated commodities like oil, reached a 14-month high
this week, aided by the declining Turkish lira. The WSJ Dollar
Index, which weighs the U.S. currency against a basket of 16 of its
peers, was up slightly, by 0.03% Friday morning.
"As is the norm, this bout of dollar optimism spooked already
skittish oil bulls, given the adverse impact on the commodities
sphere of a firmer greenback," said Stephen Brennock, analyst at
brokerage PVM Oil Associates Ltd.
Oil market observers awaited Friday weekly data from Baker
Hughes on the number of rigs drilling for oil in the U.S., a key
metric of activity.
Among refined products, Nymex reformulated gasoline
blendstock--the benchmark gasoline contract--was up 0.25% at $1.89
a gallon. ICE gasoil, a benchmark for diesel, was up 0.7% at
$647.75 a metric ton.
Write to Christopher Alessi at christopher.alessi@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 17, 2018 06:58 ET (10:58 GMT)
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