U.S. oil prices rose to a three-and-a-half year high on Thursday, bolstered by supply concerns due to U.S. sanctions that could cause a large drop in crude exports from Iran.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 83 cents to $73.59 a barrel, up 1.1 percent. It reached $74.03 earlier in the session, highest since Nov. 26, 2014.
The United States this week demanded all countries halt imports of Iranian oil from November, a hardline position the Trump administration hopes will cut off funding to Tehran.
On Thursday, officials said they would work with countries on a case-by-case basis. China, the biggest importer of Iran’s oil, has not committed to the U.S. position.
“The sanctions are trying to isolate Iran a bit more, and that potentially cuts more oil off from the overall global arena as a whole,” said Mark Watkins, a regional investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management.
“If you’re having Iran’s oil taken off the market, then you have a decrease in supply and by all means, that’s going to put more pressure on the price of oil to move up.”
via CNBC
Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.
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.
Latest posts by Alfonso Esparza (see all)
- Market Rally Still Going Low Holiday Volumes Awaiting Start of 2020 - 27 December 2019
- Market Awaits China Retaliation on Trade - 29 November 2019
- Alibaba to Close Order Book Ahead of Huge IPO - 18 November 2019