The prices of the oil rose 3% on Monday as the Production cuts in Libya added to supply concerns stemming from reports of a growing conflict in the Middle East.
Crude oil futures Brent rose $2.41, or 3.05%, to $81.43 a barrel, while U.S. crude futures West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rose $2.59, or 3.5%, to $77.42 a barrel. Both benchmarks had gained more than 2% on Friday.
The futures of the US stocks were a bit firmer, while European stocks weakened a bit, and trading was subdued as the London market was closed for a public holiday in the United Kingdom.
“Short-term buying appears justified,” said Dennis Kissler, senior vice president of trading at BOK Financial, citing tensions in the Middle East, production disruptions in Libya and weak oil inventories in Cushing, Oklahoma, the main storage hub for crude oil. USA.
The government of eastern Libya today closed all oil fields, halting production and exports. National Oil Corporation (NOC), which controls the country’s oil resources, did not provide any confirmation.
However, NOC’s subsidiary, Waha Oil Companysaid it planned to gradually reduce output and warned of a complete halt to Libyan production, citing unspecified “protests and pressures.” For its part, the Sirte Oil Companyanother NOC subsidiary, said it will begin a partial reduction in production.
It’s time for the Fed to ease up
In a highly anticipated speech at the symposium of Jackson Hole On Friday, the head of the United States Federal Reserve (Fed), Jerome Powell, He said the time had come to start easing policy and stressed that the central bank did not want to see further weakening in the labor market.
Also speaking in Jackson Hole, the chief economist of the European Central Bank, Philip Lane, took a more cautious stance at the weekend, saying the central bank was making “good progress” in bringing euro zone inflation down to its 2% target but that success was not yet assured.
“If you compare the Fed to the ECB, the Fed is more focused on the labor market and whether it has tightened policy too much,” said David Kohl, chief economist at Julius Baer in Frankfurt. “The ECB is not yet the same.”
Source: Ambito
