Oil prices show weak negative dynamics on Thursday morning after a 3% jump a day earlier.
February futures for Brent crude oil on London’s ICE Futures Exchange fell by $0.28 (0.32%) – to $86.69 per barrel by 7:17 a.m. Kk. The previous day the price of these contracts grew by 3.2% up to $86.97 per barrel. The cost of January Brent futures, which expired on Wednesday, grew by 2.9%, reaching $85.43 per barrel.
WTI futures for January delivery on NYMEX fell by $0.22 (0.27%) to $80.33 per barrel by the same time. Those contracts rose 3% on Wednesday to $80.55 a barrel.
Meanwhile, Brent was down 9.9% in November, while WTI gained 6.9%, mostly on investors’ concerns about lower demand in China due to new lockdowns caused by coronavirus outbreak.
On Wednesday the oil market, however, was supported by the news that the authorities of the People’s Republic of China softened the anti-covids measures in a number of cities and provinces, including Beijing. Investors expect official Beijing to abandon its zero tolerance policy to the coronavirus after mass protests in the country earlier this week.
Moreover, the official data of the US Department of Energy showed a weekly drop of oil reserves by 12.58 mln barrels to 419.08 mln barrels. Meanwhile, experts expected reserves decline by only 3.12 mln barrels.
The market’s attention is gradually shifting to the OPEC+ meeting to be held on December 4. Some analysts expect that the alliance may decide on further reduction of production quotas.
