crude brent oil futures for Feb delivery gained 1.5% to $75.44 a barrel while WTI Jan futures prices went up 1.5% to $70.52 a barrel on Friday morning Asian hours at the time of reporting. crude futures lost below 1% yesterday to close down. WTI traded at a discount of $4.71 over Brent during the session.
crude benchmark futures prices lost around 5% during the week and heading towards 7th weekly loss. Front month futures fell into contango structure where current month futures trades at a discount to nearby futures. Chinese weak numbers , bearish weekly product stock numbers, Strong greenback and expected slump in demand outlook are the prevailed bearish factors in the market. On the supply side, KSA and Russia called for more adherence to agreed cuts from member countries. It is very evident that producer’s council could not build trust to execute cuts. On the demand side, India’s fuel consumption reduced in the month of November. Rig numbers are awaited.
The bottom line is that traders eyed oversupplied markets and sluggish demand outlook rather than bullish supply news during the week. Traders booked profits in the over sold market. Crude markets need more fundamentals clues to turn up.
