The greenback climbed as much as 0.3 percent against a basket of 10 currencies on Friday to near the highest since at least 2004. “There is also some optimism relating to the potential for Chinese infrastructure projects in the new year”, John Meyer, mining analyst at SP Angel, said. “Nothing really bullish is out there”.
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Such a tactic, analysts say, has kept prices below $50 a barrel.
The oil minister of Venezuela has said that the price of oil could even fall to $ 25 per barrel if OPEC doesn’t act quickly. “The cabinet stressed the kingdom’s role in the stability of the oil market, its constant readiness and continuing pursuit to cooperate with all oil producing and exporting countries”.
The minister’s comments were supported during a subsequent Saudi cabinet meeting too.
In recent days the Saudi message has gone from letting market forces do the hard work to the Saudis being willing to co-operate with other producers in the name of stability.
OK, US commodity markets were closed for Thanksgiving on Thursday. It is its sixth losing week in the past seven.
US stock futures pointed to a rise of around 0.2 percent at the open on Wall Street.
Prices had surged on Tuesday on heightened geopolitical tensions sparked by Turkey’s shooting down of a Russian fighter jet on the Syrian border. On one hand high oil prices could encourage renewed increases in USA shale oil production (the last thing they want is for that United States oil to start competing with them on a global scale), whilst on the other hand, widening budget deficits in a low oil prices world does not appeal either.
Liz Grant, senior account executive at Sucden Financial, said, “Price activity was “mixed” but remained well above the lows seen at the beginning of the week as the market attempts to consolidate”. Total proved reserves of liquids rose to 39.9 billion barrels, the first time since 1972 that US proved reserves have topped 39 billion barrels.
The U.S. energy department said crude stockpiles ticked up by 1 million barrels in the week ended November 20, bringing the total tally 488.2 million barrels, a level not seen in the last eight decades.
Oil prices slid on Friday (Nov 27) on concerns about global oversupply as traders looked ahead to next week’s OPEC meeting, sceptical the oil producers cartel will lower high output levels.
Just one month ago a report from OPEC stated that its members collectively produced 31.5 million barrels per day (in Sept.) and that volume represented the most since 2012.
Gold futures for February delivery declined 1.3 percent to settle at US$1,056.20 an ounce at 12:45pm on the Comex in NY. December gasoline fell 0.56 cent, or 0.4%, to close at $1.3905. Iran, which had been previously blocked from selling oil due to economic sanctions, said last week it planned to boost oil production by 1 million barrels a day within the next 5-6 months. Diesel is down for four straight weeks, losing 1.89 cents, or 1.4% this week.
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Tim Puko and Jenny W. Hsu contributed to this article.
