The intermediate oil price of Texas (WTI) closed this Friday with a drop of 1.2%, up to $70.04 the barrel, affected by the strength of the dollar and the persistent fears about the future of energy demand.
At the close of the operations In New York, WTI futures contracts for June delivery lost 83 cents from the previous day’s close, when they had also ended lower.
In the weekly computation, the crude oil price The benchmark in the United States fell almost 2% and was on the brink of losing again the psychological level of US$70.
The price of black gold has been affected in recent days by a whole series of factors, including an unexpected increase in US oil reserves, a rising dollar against other currencies – which makes the product more expensive for many buyers – and the shadow of a possible suspension of payments in the United States due to the refusal of Republican legislators to approve a rise in the debt ceiling.
Some data have also been noted employment worse than expected in the United States and some bad figures for the Chinese economy, which make investors fear about the future of the demand energy, especially if, as is feared, interest rate hikes end up causing a recession.
On the other hand, natural gas futures contracts for June rose 8 cents to US$2.27, and gasoline futures due the same month lost US$0.03 to US$2.43.