The world’s top oil importer, China, is facing economic challenges, and this has resulted in a 3.42% decline in crude oil prices, which closed at 6612. Strong news on the American labor market and manufacturing drove up crude prices, and as a result, the US dollar index increased.
A further depressant of demand sentiment was concerns about China’s economy. The U.S. government announced a greater-than-expected reduction in U.S. oil stockpiles earlier in the week, which provided some short-term support for the crude oil market.
For the third week in a row, the U.S. saw a 4.87 million barrel decline in crude oil stocks, the longest such stretch since September. This week ended on July 12, 2024. Nevertheless, because of outside influences, the general mood was pessimistic. Additionally, the market is keenly monitoring OPEC+ because it is doubtful that the producer group will suggest alterations to its output policy, such as plans to begin rolling back part of the oil supply cutbacks that were put in place in October.
However, petrol supplies increased by 3.328 million barrels in the United States compared to a drop of 1.7 million barrels as anticipated. In contrast to a 0.5 million barrel drop that was predicted, distillate stockpiles which include heating oil and diesel rose by 3.454 million barrels.
