Oil futures suffered from a second consecutive weekly decline on Friday, pressured by worries over the outlook for demand and a climb in U.S. crude supplies.
West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery edged up by 3 cents, or 0.08%, to settle at $37.33 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, with prices logging a decline of 6.1% for the week, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
November Brent, the global benchmark, fell 23 cents, or 0.6%, to $39.83 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe, for a weekly loss of 6.6%.
U.S. and global benchmark crude took different paths for the session, with U.S. prices tacking on a few pennies, and global prices posting a loss. “Demand woes” returned, as inventories rose and the dollar staged a comeback, Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda told MarketWatch.
U.S. jobless claims rose for a fourth week in a row in data published Thursday, signalling that a summer improvement in the labor market has stalled, feeding worries about the economy and energy demand.
Meanwhile, the Energy Information Administration reported an increase in domestic crude supplies for the first time in seven weeks. And on Friday, the dollar looked to end higher for the week, with the ICE U.S. Dollar Index up 0.7% from last Friday.
Against this backdrop, oil marked its “first consecutive weekly slide since the April collapse” to a negative price settlement for the U.S. benchmark, said Moya, in a market update.
Source: MarketWatch