Oil accumulated two days of losses pushed by China and the fall of the dollar

The magnitude of the latest Chinese outbreak of COVID-19 and doubts about official data led some countries to enact new travel rules for Chinese visitorseven as China began to dismantle the world’s strictest COVID lockdown and testing regime.

Chinese authorities reported that people infected by Covid-19 exceeded 250 million.

Analysts estimate that the new wave of cases reduces expectations that the Chinese authorities will continue with the easing of the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, something that would impact the demand for crude oil.

Added to this, a weaker dollar made oil cheaper for holders of other currencies and concerns over the unfolding of the Russia-Ukraine war.

The Kremlin army fired dozens of missiles at Ukraine, throughout the day, targeting kyiv and other cities in the framework of a major offensive that had been announced days before, causing extensive damage and casualties among the civilian population.

The United States Energy Information Agency (EIA) detailed today that the stock of crude oil and derivative products increased in the last week.

Commercial crude oil inventories, excluding Strategic Reserves, increased last week by 700,000 barrels compared to the previous week, totaling 419 million barrels, 6% below the average of the last five years.

Automotive gasoline inventories decreased by 3.1 million barrels from last week and are about 4% below the five-year average for this time of year.

Distillate inventories increased by 300,000 barrels last week and are about 7% below the five-year average.

Natural gas contracts for January delivery fell 2% and traded at $4.60 per million BTU.

Finally, Gold rose 0.3% and settled at US$1,822 per ounce.

Source: Ambito