The cost of February futures for Brent at London’s ICE Futures Exchange is $76.53 per barrel by 7:12 a.m. (approx. 0.57%) above the close of the previous session. At the close of trading last Friday those contracts fell by 5 cents (0.1%) to $76.1 a barrel.
The price of WTI futures for January at the electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) is $71.59 per barrel by that time, which is $0.57 (0.8%) above the final value of the previous session. The contract fell by $0.44 (0.6%) to $71.2 per barrel at the end of last session.
Brent dropped by 11.1% and WTI by 11.2% at the end of last week. Both contracts ended trading at their lowest levels since December 2021.
Last week the main negative factor for oil quotes was concerns about the recession in the global economy and the demand for fuel in China.
Traders are afraid that amid data on high business activity in the U.S. and high inflation, the Fed will continue to adhere to tight monetary policy and will not hurry to reduce rates. This could slow economic growth in the United States and the world at large or even lead to a global recession, which would lower fuel demand.
Investors were also assessing the imposition of a price ceiling on Russian oil and news of an easing of coronavirus restrictions in China. DTV senior analyst Troy Vincent recalled the expression “buy on rumor, sell on fact,” and noted that last week was the time for facts.
Meanwhile, the number of active oil rigs in the U.S. fell by two last week to 625, oil services company Baker Hughes reported. The figure dropped for the first time in six weeks.
