Oil prices headed for a seventh straight weekly loss on Friday, with key producers showing no sign of cutting output in the face of a global supply glut.
Global oil benchmarks hit their lowest since 2009 this week and are down more than 50 percent from June levels, with Brent crude futures LCOc1 extending declines on Friday, dropping 40 cents a barrel to $50.56 by 0514 ET.
U.S. crude futures for February delivery CLc1 were down 18 cents at $48.61 a barrel despite robust U.S. economic data that brightened the outlook for demand.
Brent’s premium to U.S. crude CL-LCO1=R fell near $1.92 a barrel, the narrowest since October as international seaborne oil markets appear to be under even more pressure than the U.S. domestic market.
“It is another negative week and a reflection of the focus on negative arguments,” said Hans Van Cleef, senior energy economist at Dutch bank ABN Amro.
Supply concerns remained as Saudi Arabia and its Gulf OPEC allies are showing no sign of considering cutting output to boost oil prices even as demand slows globally.
Annual consumer inflation in China remained near the lowest in five years, signaling persistent weakness in the world’s largest energy consumer.
Signs of further slowdown in Europe’s largest economy Germany fueled further concerns over oil demand.
via Reuters
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Alfonso Esparza
trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
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