Crude oil futures - weekly outlook: October 20 - 24

Investing.com - Crude oil futures ended Friday's session modestly higher, as investors returned to the market to seek cheap valuations in wake of recent losses and to close out bets on lower prices.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude oil for delivery in November inched up 5 cents, or 0.06%, on Friday to end the week at $82.75 a barrel.

New York-traded oil futures tumbled to $79.78 a barrel on Thursday, a level not seen since June 2012.

For the week, New York-traded oil futures lost $3.07, or 3.57%, the fifth weekly decline over the past six weeks.

Elsewhere, on the ICE Futures Exchange in London, Brent oil for December delivery tacked on 34 cents, or 0.4%, on Friday to settle at $86.16 a barrel by close of trade.

London-traded Brent prices fell to $82.93 on Thursday, the lowest level since December 2010.

For the week, the November Brent contract dropped $4.05, or 4.48%, the fourth straight weekly loss.

Meanwhile the spread between the Brent and the WTI crude contracts stood at $3.41 a barrel by close of trade on Friday, compared to $4.39 in the preceding week.

Crude oil futures sank to multi-month lows on Thursday as concerns over the global economic outlook and the impact on future demand prospects dampened the appeal of the commodity.

London-traded Brent prices have fallen nearly 26% since June, when it climbed near $116, while WTI futures are down almost 23% from a recent peak of $107.50 in June.

Indications that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will not cut output to support oil markets have weighed on prices.

Kuwait lowered official selling prices to Asian buyers in an effort to retain its market share last week, following similar moves from core OPEC members Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran.

Oil ministers from the 12-member group are scheduled to meet in Vienna on November 27 to consider whether to adjust their production target of 30 million barrels per day for early 2015.

Global supplies have far outpaced demand in recent months. A report earlier in the month showed that OPEC oil output hit a two-year high of 31 million barrels per day in September, led by higher production from Iraq and Libya.

Some market analysts believe that only a cut in output by the oil cartel will halt the decline in prices.

In the week ahead, investors will be awaiting U.S. data on consumer price inflation and new home sales for fresh signals on the strength of the economic recovery.

Oil traders are looking ahead to a raft of Chinese economic data later this week, including reports on third quarter gross domestic product, as well as data on industrial production and retail sales.

The U.S. and China are the world’s two largest oil consuming nations.

Data from the Commodities Futures Trading Commission released Friday showed that hedge funds and money managers decreased their bullish bets in New York-traded oil futures in the week ending October 14.

Net longs totaled 176,671 contracts as of last week, down 8.1% from net longs of 192,208 in the preceding week.