Last week was the best for oil prices since April. On Monday, stocks are pointing slightly lower again.
The August contract price for Brent oil is $82.39 per barrel. Barrel, down 0.1 percent (8 cents) so far in today’s trading. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.3 percent to $78.18 a barrel.
Investors are absorbing a number of macro numbers from China. Industrial production rose by 5.6% year-on-year in May, thus coming in on the disappointing side as the consensus was for a 6.0% increase. Retail trade, on the other hand, surprised positively by rising 3.7 percent year-on-year in May, versus 3.0 percent expected.
– Room for further growth
Meanwhile, oil refining fell to its lowest level so far this year after several facilities were closed for maintenance. According to a survey he conducted Bloomberg Refining is expected to develop flat or negatively in 2024. In this case, this will be the first time in 20 years (excluding the Corona-related decline in 2022), and down from last year's record volumes when demand returned.
CITIC Futures analyst Gui Chenxi tells the news agency that oil prices have room to rise further.
– She says that the third quarter is usually the peak season globally and would push oil refining and demand higher.
– Consumer tested
At IG in Singapore, market analyst Tony Sycamore explains the rise in oil prices last week with OPEC and the International Energy Agency forecasting strong demand in 2024.
But given OPEC's interests in crude oil, there are some doubts about their outlook, he told Reuters.
– Weak US consumer confidence numbers on Friday suggest that the resilience of the US consumer and economy will be tested as households use their savings reserves to deal with rising interest rates and cost-of-living pressures, he adds.
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