Oil prices of benchmark grades are moderately rising on Thursday morning after rising at the end of the previous session, caused by the fall of the dollar.
The price of September futures for Brent on London’s ICE Futures exchange at 8:18 a.m. Q2 is $80.3 per barrel, up 19 cents (0.24%) from the previous session’s close. On Wednesday, these contracts rose by $0.71 (0.9%) – to $80.11 per barrel, having updated the maximum since the end of April.
Quotes of futures for WTI crude oil for August at the electronic trading of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) by the specified time rose by 14 cents (0.18%) and amounted to $75.89 per barrel. At the end of the previous session they rose by $0.92 (1.2%) – to $75.75 per barrel.
On the eve it became known that the growth rate of consumer prices in the U.S. slowed to 3% in June from 4% in May, having updated the minimum since March 2021. Analysts on average expected a decline to 3.1%.
Oil traders are keeping an eye on easing inflationary pressures as this may result in the Federal Reserve (Fed) having no need to raise interest rates further, meaning “the current positive conditions in the economy may persist for some time,” said Colin Cieszynski, senior strategist at SIA Wealth Management.
“This has helped raise demand expectations, while supply from Saudi Arabia and Russia remains subdued,” he added.
The prospect of an imminent end to the U.S. monetary tightening cycle collapsed the dollar, which supported commodity prices. The ICE index, which shows the dollar’s performance against six major currencies, plunged 1.2% the day before, hitting its lowest level in more than a year.
The U.S. Department of Energy report, which indicated a sharp increase in oil reserves in the country last week – by almost 6 million barrels instead of the expected increase by 483 thousand barrels.
Gasoline inventories remained virtually unchanged, while distillate stocks rose by 4.815 million barrels. Experts surveyed by Trading Economics on average forecasted a decrease of 727 thousand barrels and 262 thousand barrels, respectively.
Stocks at the terminal in Cushing, where oil traded on Nymex is stored, decreased by 1.605 million barrels over the week.
