Crude oil for October delivery managed to end the week in the positive, however only rose a little in weekly terms despite having ranged as high as 90.5 dollars per barrel.
Astonishingly, oil only ended one session of the previous week on a positive note, with the other 4 sessions recording losses.
There have been strong upward pressures for crude of late, these being the Libyan strife and also the tropical storms halting production in the Gulf of Mexico, yet oil only advanced slightly for the third consecutive week.
Investors are speculating that Obama‘s job – creation plan will support demand for fuel, which caused the spike higher on Wednesday alongside the strong storms in the Gulf of Mexico.
However, a rising dollar drew more attention in the latter half of the week as did the concerns over slowing global growth. ”In the next month or so, it‘s going to be very uncertain,” said Jeremy Friesen, a Hong Kong – based commodity strategist at Societe Generale SA. ”We could see prices continuing to sell off if the market doesn‘t like what the Fed says. But if the market likes it, the physical crude market is reasonably tight, so that should support prices.”
Also of note, Libya may export a crude – oil cargo in September which would be the first transport of crude from the holder of Africa‘s largest oil reserves since March.
