Oil prices were on track to close the week higher, with WTI oil and Brent crude each up roughly 1% after dipping earlier in the week to lows last seen in November.
Oil prices shot higher Wednesday after U.S. government data showed the first decline for domestic-crude stockpiles in 10 weeks. Prices were also helped by a weaker dollar in the wake of the Federal Reserve’s less-hawkish-than-expected rate announcement.
Another snapshot from the oil market will arrive Friday, with oil-field services company Baker Hughes BHI, +1.34% slated to release a weekly update on the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil. Last week, the total active U.S. rig count, which includes oil and natural-gas rigs, rose by 12 to 768.
Rising output from the U.S. remains at odds with efforts by other major producers to rebalance the oversupplied oil market.
While Wednesday was a standout session, oil declined Thursday and on Friday, WTI was below $49 a barrel.
“The price action over the last few days doesn’t look particularly bullish for oil and I do wonder whether the $50 level in Brent is on borrowed time,” said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst, Oanda, in a note.
via MarketWatch
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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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