The recent rally for crude oil, came to a shuddering halt this week with Wednesday’s wide spread down candle driving oil prices firmly back towards the $50 per barrel region, and wiping out much of the gains of the last few weeks.
Brent crude oil (BNO, quote) was steady above $78 on Thursday as markets prepared for a busy day of economic releases. The commodity traded at $78.06 at 7:45 GMT as investors kept their focus on OPEC’s upcoming meeting and whether or not the cartel would cut output.
Let me start this analysis for oil, by highlighting an issue which I always find deeply ironic which is this – when oil prices rise quickly, a hue and cry results with the ‘evil’ speculators blamed who quickly become public enemy number one.
Brent crude oil (BNO, quote) nearly fell below $94 on Thursday morning as investors continued to worry about growing supplies and a waning global economy.
Brent crude oil (BNO, quote) was steady above $107 as investors kept an eye on global instabilities, but relaxed their worries about a supply interruptions as the market appears to have a glut of crude.
Brent crude oil (BNO, quote) declined on Monday as tension in Gaza cooled off following a difficult to achieve humanitarian agreement between Hamas and Israeli forces.
Brent crude oil (BNO, quote) was steady above $108 as encouraging data from the world’s top two consumers helped raise the global demand outlook.
Brent crude oil (BNO, quote) prices climbed as problems in Libya continued and US crude inventory data showed that the nation’s stocks fell last week.
Brent crude oil (BNO, quote) made its way above $110 on Thursday as rising tension in Ukraine raised concerns about supply interruptions.
Brent crude oil (BNO, quote) looked poised to end the week with its largest weekly decline in four months.
