Benchmark oil prices are slightly rising on Monday morning. Last Friday, quotes rose, but ended in the red for the second week in a row.
The price of October futures for Brent on the London ICE Futures exchange at 8:19 a.m. is $84.53 per barrel, which is 5 cents (0.06%) higher than at the close of the previous session. Last Friday, these contracts rose by $1.12 (1.3%) to $84.48 per barrel.
Quotes for WTI futures for October in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) by this time increased by 11 cents (0.14%) to $79.94 per barrel. At the end of the previous session, they rose by $0.78 (1%) to $79.83 per barrel.
Last week, Brent fell by 0.4% and WTI by 1%.
Oil market participants are evaluating the speech of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium. According to him, the Fed is not done fighting high inflation and may raise interest rates again if necessary.
“We stand ready to raise rates even higher if necessary, and we intend to maintain a restrictive monetary policy until we have confidence that inflation is moving steadily downward toward our target,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Chinese authorities have announced new measures to support the economy, which relate to the housing market and the stock market.
“The news of further stimulus in China has provided additional support,” said Warren Patterson of ING Groep NV. – “However, prices are likely to remain in a certain range in the short term, given the continuing concerns about shrinking demand and rising supply.
Meanwhile, data from the oilfield services company Baker Hughes showed that over the past week, the number of operating oil rigs in the United States decreased by 8 units to 512, which is the lowest since February 2022.
