Oil futures continued to drop on Thursday as investors awaited a highly anticipated OPEC meeting next week, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in September fell 56 cents, or 1.1%, to settle at $49.03 a barrel.
October Brent crude, the global benchmark, lost 35 cents, or 0.7%, to end trading at $52.01 a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
“I think we are going to be relatively range-bound unless we see some kind of weather or political event,” said Tariq Zahir, managing member at commodity-trading adviser Tyche Capital Advisors.
Zahir said oil futures would be sensitive to any news with domestic oil futures having the potential to hit $51 a barrel if any supply disruptions or bullish news emerges.
Late Wednesday, the EIA reported a 1.5 million-barrel drop in crude inventories last week, falling short of analysts’ expectations. Data from the American Petroleum Institute revealed an unexpected uptick in stockpiles last week.
Meanwhile, natural gas for September fell by 1.1 cent, or 0.4%, to settle at $2.80 per million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
