Oil prices rose on Friday, but ended the week in the red on fears of lower demand.
The cost of February futures for Brent on the London ICE Futures exchange as of 7:20 a.m. is $75.19 per barrel, which is $1.14 (1.54%) higher than at the close of the previous session. On Thursday, the price of these contracts fell by $0.25 (0.3%) to $74.05 per barrel.
January futures for WTI in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) rose by $0.99 (1.43%) to $70.33 per barrel by this time. As a result of the previous trading, the value of these contracts decreased by $0.04 (less than 0.1%) to $69.34 per barrel.
Both Brent and WTI fell on Thursday for the sixth consecutive session, the longest period of continuous decline since February, Market Watch notes. Prices are at their lowest levels since June.
Futures end in the red for the seventh week in a row, having lost about 5% since the beginning of the week.
“The demand outlook looks weak,” said Ravinda Rao, an analyst at Kotak Securities in Mumbai. – “Economic growth in China has not yet been able to gain traction, while in the West we see a continued decline in industrial activity.
At the same time, traders doubt that the voluntary commitments to reduce production in the first quarter of 2024, undertaken by individual countries of the group, will be fully observed.
