Forexpros – Crude futures rose Thursday on expectations for an even speedier U.S. recovery as evidenced by sharply falling oil inventories.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in February traded at USD99.13 a barrel early in the session, up 0.48%.
The commodity hit a session high of USD99.14 and a low of USD98.93 so far in early Asian trading on Thursday.
In the U.S. crude oil inventories fell by 10.6 million barrels to 323.6 million, beating out some analyst estimates as much as five times over.
Furthermore, the European Central Bank’s decision to arrange EUR489 billion to banks boosted optimism in the energy markets as well, although analysts said that factor may be short-lived once fears of renewed recession settle back in.
Ongoing tension in the Middle East also kept prices firm.
Western diplomats are mulling slapping economic sanctions on Iran for allegedly developing a nuclear program, while in Iraq, U.S. troop withdrawals are already giving way to internal rifts.
Iraqi authorities have issued an arrest warrant for Sunni Muslim Vice-President Tareq al-Hashemi on suspected connections to assassinations and bombings, Reuters reports.
“Look at Iraq. Within days of the U.S. announcement to withdraw troops, there is concern about growing differences between the various factions,” said Tony Nunan, a risk manager at Mitsubishi Corp, Reuters adds.
Elsewhere, on the ICE Futures Exchange, Brent oil futures for February delivery were up 0.05%, trading at USD107.97 a barrel, up USD8.84 from its U.S. counterpart.
The gap in price between the two contracts hovers on the lower end between a nearly USD20.00 all-time high and a historical spread of USD1.00.
Forexpros
