Oil prices are rising moderately on Friday morning after the first rise in four sessions the previous day, caused by a sharp weakening of the dollar.
The cost of January futures for Brent on London’s ICE Futures Exchange stood at $93.92 a barrel by 7:05 a.m. Ksk, $0.25 (0.27%) above the previous session’s closing price. Those contracts rose $1.02 (1.1%) to $93.67 a barrel at the close of trading on Thursday.
The price of WTI futures for December at electronic trades on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) is $86.72 per barrel by that time, which is $0.25 (0.29%) above the final value of the previous session. The contract rose by $0.64 (0.8%) to $86.47 per barrel on Thursday.
The index calculated by ICE, which shows the dollar’s dynamics against six currencies (euro, Swiss franc, yen, Canadian dollar, pound sterling and Swedish krona), fell about 2% the previous day after data on a sharp slowdown in U.S. inflation. U.S. consumer prices (CPI) rose 7.7% in October compared to the same month a year earlier after rising 8.2% in September. Thus, inflation slowed to its lowest since January and was well below market forecasts.
“The consumer price index came in below forecasts, and that eased some of the negative factors for oil, such as the strong dollar and fears of more aggressive Fed rate hikes,” said Price Futures Group senior analyst Phil Flynn.
“At the same time, uncertainty over China’s coronavirus policy persists,” the expert added. – It seems to me that once we see signs that the Chinese economy is starting to open up, that will radically change the dynamics and push oil prices up.”
