Oil prices fell on Tuesday after scoring a gain for the week on Friday as traders waited for the outcome of a meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies that is set for this coming weekend.
Price action
-
West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery
CL00,
-4.27% CLN23,
-4.27%
was off by 77 cents, or 1.1%, at $71.96 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. -
July Brent crude
BRN00,
-4.28% BRNN23,
-4.39% ,
the global benchmark, fell by $1.10, or 1.5%, at $75 per barrel on ICE Futures Europe. -
Back on Nymex, June gasoline
RBM23,
-3.83%
declined by 1.2% to $2.67 a gallon, while June heating oil
HOM23,
-3.21%
fell by 0.9% to $2.35. -
July natural gas
NGN23,
-4.84%
fell by 2.5% to $2.36 per million British thermal units.
Market drivers
Oil prices have fallen back since the start of 2023 as expectations for a slowdown in global economic growth have weighed on prices of energy commodities.
Production cuts announced by OPEC and its allies have had limited impact on prices, but traders will be watching closely ahead of the next meeting of the cartel of oil exporters set for this coming weekend.
Traders are on guard after a top Saudi official said last week that short sellers better “watch out.”
See: Top Saudi official says oil speculators had better ‘watch out’
Oil-market experts also highlighted uncertainty about the Federal Reserve’s plans for monetary policy as an impediment to oil prices.
“Oil markets continue to experience highly choppy price action, driven this week by Fed uncertainty, low liquidity and confusing messages from OPEC+ members about new output cuts, which have spread uncertainty in oil markets and left traders doing little more than betting yes or no on a production cut heading into the Jun 4 OPEC meeting,” said Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, in emailed commentary.
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