Oil: Into its 7th-week, the rally is slowing
Investing.com — Helped by forecasts for record world oil demand this month, coming no less from the closely-followed International Energy Agency, crude prices finished with a seventh straight week of gains — the longest winning streak since June 2022.
Yet, the rally is slowing. In the latest week, U.S. crude prices rose by 0.3%, compared with the near 5% rise seen two weeks ago and during the second week of the rally.
New York-traded West Texas Intermediate, or WTI, crude settled up 37 cents, or 0.5%, both for the day and week. It was the smallest weekly advance for WTI since the rally that began in the week to June 16. Notwithstanding the slowing pace of the rally, the U.S. crude benchmark still hit a 9-month high of $84.89 on Thursday and is up about 20% in all in under two months.
London-based Brent crude also rose meagerly for the week. It settled at $86.81 per barrel, up 41 cents, or 0.5%, on the day, and 0.7% higher on the week. Like WTI, the weekly gain for Brent was the smallest since the oil rally which began seven weeks ago. But in a similar trend to its U.S. counterpart, the global crude benchmark touched a new milestone on Thursday, reaching a seven-month high of $88.10. In under two months, Brent is up 18%.
Oil managed to end the day and week higher after early weakness in Friday’s trade that followed through with Thursday’s lower close.
After a seven-week run-up, complacency was setting into the market, enough “sometimes that…you get a decent pullback”, Ed Moya, analyst at online trading platform OANDA, said. He, however, conceded that momentum was still adequate to deliver another week of gains, adding that “energy traders remain overly confident the oil market will remain tight” and that “it doesn’t seem
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