Sign up to create alerts for Instruments,
Economic Events and content by followed authors
Free Sign Up Already have an account? Sign In
Quotes
All Instrument Types
- All Instrument Types
- Indices
- Equities
- ETFs
- Funds
- Commodities
- Currencies
- Crypto
- Bonds
- Certificates
Please try another search
Final hours: unlock premium data with Claim 60% OFF
Oil settles narrowly mixed after smaller ECB hike; demand concerns linger
Published May 03, 2023 08:22PM ET
Updated May 04, 2023 03:41PM ET
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A 3D printed oil pump jack is placed on dollar banknotes in this illustration picture, April 14, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
By Laura Sanicola
(Reuters) - Oil prices settled nearly unchanged on Thursday after the European Central Bank (ECB) decided to slow the pace of interest rate hikes, with prices still down more than 9% for the week on demand concerns in major consuming countries.
Brent futures settled up 17 cents, or 0.24%, to $72.50 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude settled down 4 cents, or 0.06 to $68.56.
WTI in early trading on Thursday fell to a session low of $63.64 a barrel, the lowest price since December 2021.
Oil prices tumbled this week after concerns about the U.S. economy and signs of weak manufacturing growth in the world's largest oil importer China, sliding further after the U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates on Wednesday. That capped near-term economic growth prospects.
However, the Fed's signal that it may pause further interest rate increases to give officials time to assess the fallout from recent bank failures and to gain clarity on the dispute over raising the U.S. debt ceiling helped support markets.
The ECB increased its three policy rates by 25 basis points, the smallest hike since the central bank starting lifting them last summer, and kept its options open on future moves as it fights stubbornly high euro zone inflation.
Along with investor indigestion over central bank messaging, Wall Street stock indexes were under pressure Thursday from another rout in U.S. bank shares, which have reeled from the collapse of a third major regional bank over the weekend.
"The ability of oil to recover today despite a significantly lower stock market attests to some independent price support," said Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch and Associates in Galena, Illinois.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies including Russia, a group known as OPEC+, started voluntary output cuts at the beginning of May.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday that Russia was abiding by its voluntary pledge to cut oil output by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) from February until the end of the year.
"What we're seeing is a combination of economic headwinds and skepticism that OPEC cuts will actually occur," said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital LLC in New York.
Related Articles
Add Chart to Comment
Confirm Block
Are you sure you want to block %USER_NAME%?
By doing so, you and %USER_NAME% will not be able to see any of each other's Investing.com's posts.
%USER_NAME% was successfully added to your Block List
Since you’ve just unblocked this person, you must wait 48 hours before renewing the block.
Report this comment
I feel that this comment is:
Comment flagged
Thank You!
Your report has been sent to our moderators for review
Add a Comment
We encourage you to use comments to engage with other users, share your perspective and ask questions of authors and each other. However, in order to maintain the high level of discourse we’ve all come to value and expect, please keep the following criteria in mind:
Enrich the conversation, don’t trash it.
Stay focused and on track. Only post material that’s relevant to the topic being discussed.
Be respectful. Even negative opinions can be framed positively and diplomatically. Avoid profanity, slander or personal attacks directed at an author or another user. Racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination will not be tolerated.
Perpetrators of spam or abuse will be deleted from the site and prohibited from future registration at Investing.com’s discretion.