InfoQuest – West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures in New York closed negative on Friday (June 7) and fell for the third straight week on concerns that oil demand may decline. This is despite OPEC+ plans to increase oil production.
The WTI contract will be delivered in July. The price of a barrel of oil decreased by 2 cents, or 0.03%, to close at $75.53 per barrel.
The Brent crude oil (BRENT) contract will be delivered in August. The price of oil fell by 25 cents, or 0.31%, to close at $79.62 per barrel.
Crude oil futures fell for the third week in a row due to concerns about oil demand. The West Texas Intermediate crude contract fell by 1.9% and the Brent crude contract fell by 2.5%.
Data indicate that employment growth in the United States rose more than expected in May. This will cause the Fed to delay starting to cut interest rates until September.
The European Central Bank cut interest rates for the first time since 2019 on Thursday (June 6), despite an increasingly uncertain inflation outlook.
High interest rates slow economic activity and affect demand for oil.
The dollar rose 0.8 percent to its highest level in more than a week shortly after the jobs report was published.
Crude oil contracts have declined since the beginning of this week. After analysts saw that the OPEC meeting last Sunday (June 2) was a sign of increased oil supplies. This will be a negative factor for oil prices.
But oil prices received support from Saudi Arabia and Russia, members of the OPEC+ group, saying they were ready to suspend or cancel the increase in oil production.
China revealed information indicating this, and although exports expanded for the second month in May, crude oil imports declined. This points to demand concerns in China, the world's largest buyer of crude oil.
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