Forexpros – Crude oil futures continued their downtrend on Wednesday on rising U.S. supplies despite Mid Eastern and euro zone tensions.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for January delivery traded at USD100.47 during late U.S. trade, giving back 0.86%.
Earlier, it plunged to below the technically critical USD100.00 level to a session low of 99.69.
Weakness in the U.S. dollar did little to support crude prices. The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was down 0.11% to trade at 78.55.
Dollar weakness usually benefits commodities, as it boosts their appeal as an alternative asset and makes dollar-priced commodities cheaper for holders of other currencies.
A sharp jump in U.S. supplies weighed heavily on crude’s price. U.S. crude oil inventories climbed by 1.3 million barrels crushing consensus estimates of a 1.1 million barrel decline.
Meanwhile, traders remained focused on the European summit, pending interest rate cut, and Iranian tensions.
Elsewhere, on the ICE Futures Exchange, Brent oil futures were also sharply lower to trade at USD109.33 a barrel, up on its U.S. counterpart by USD8.11.
The USD8.11 gap remains historically high. The two contracts traditionally have traded within USD1.00 of each other.
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