Commodity: Oil Prices Mixed on Friday after Robust Gains
On Friday, Oil prices were mixed after robust gains on Thursday. This followed when reports on the decline of crude supplies at Oklahoma’s domestic delivery hub.
Meanwhile, the September delivery for the Crude Oil WTI Futures jumped to 0.15% to $69.06 per barrel while the October delivery for Brent Oil Futures declined to 0.08% to $73.39 for per barrel.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC’s) and Russia’s further high on output were considered as the headwind for oil prices. The July output of OPEC went up and Saudi Arabia surged near-record volumes. Meanwhile, Russia increased its production.
“We are seeing continued negative sentiment, driven by worries over growth and demand,” said Ole Sloth Hansen, Head of Commodity Strategy at Saxo Bank A/S in Copenhagen.
Genscape reported on Thursday that the US crude inventories at Cushing had declined in the week as per the traders. Meanwhile, since July 27, the stockpiles dropped to 1.1 million barrels.
The oil prices traded low at a $66.92 a barrel intraday. This is amid the present concerns about the increasing output of oil producers. The US-China trade war remained in focus. Further, traders fear that China would lessen the demand for energy after the latest development and lower prices of crude.
On Friday, US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross suggested imposing more pain on China only if there would be changes on their economic system.
“We have to create a situation where it’s more painful for them to continue their bad practices than it is to reform,” Ross said in an interview.
He added that Washington will keep increasing the trade pressure on China unless Beijing will commit to the economic playing field.
“The reason for the tariffs, to begin with, was to try and convince the Chinese to modify their behavior. Instead, they have been retaliating. So the president now feels that it’s potentially time to put more pressure on, in order to modify their behavior,” he said.
Gold prices drop as dollar slightly changes ahead July Job Report
Before the US July job reports which are due later in the day, the Gold prices further dropped as the dollar slightly changed.
The December delivery of the Gold futures on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange declined to $4.0 or 0.33%, to $1,216.10 a troy ounce.
Meanwhile, the dollar made minimal changes as the traders anticipate the monthly jobs report for more signals.
On Friday, the US Dollar Index declined to 0.01% to 94.99.
Based on a Reuters survey of economists, nonfarm payrolls likely made a 190,000 increase in July following the 213,000 growth in June.
“A decent jobs report should prompt a straight-forward reaction by the markets, with U.S. yields rising and the dollar gaining,” said Ichikawa at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management.
