A rise in weekly U.S. jobless claims is blamed for the drop in oil futures in Thursday’s trading. Also blamed are concerns about the outlook for demand shaken by minutes of the Federal Reserve’s last meeting.
West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery declined 35 cents, or 0.8%, to finish at $42.58 a barrel, while October WTI , the most actively traded contract, fell 29 cents, or 0.7%, to $42.82 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The global benchmark, October Brent crude, finished down 47 cents, or 1%, at $44.90 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe reported MarketWatch.
“The energy market is seen as a good barometer for global demand and seeing as dealers are less optimistic about the state of the global economy in light of [Wednesday’s] Fed minutes, oil has tumbled,” said David Madden, analyst at CMC Markets, in a note.
Crude futures remained lower after data showed the number of first-time U.S. weekly jobless claims rose back above 1 million last week.
Minutes of the Fed’s July 28-29 meeting released Wednesday afternoon said staff economists told policy makers they were lowering their estimate for economic growth over the second half of the year.
Meanwhile, a meeting of the OPEC+ alliance’s Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee on Wednesday offered no surprises, with ministers maintaining output cuts of 7.7 million barrels a day, but emphasizing the need for countries that failed to cut enough in previous months to make compensatory reductions this month and next.
Source: MarketWatch