WTI oil closed down 4 cents on concerns about slowing Chinese-US demand: InfoQuest

West Texas Crude Oil (WTI) futures in New York closed lower on Thursday (Dec. 7) as investors worried about slowing energy demand in the United States and China. Including oil production in the United States, which has surged to near record highs.

• The WTI crude oil contract will be delivered in January. fell 4 cents, or 0.06%, to close at $69.34/barrel.
• The Brent crude oil contract (BRENT) will be delivered in February. fell 25 cents, or 0.34%, to close at $74.05/barrel.

Concerns about slowing oil demand in the U.S. and China dragged WTI and Brent futures to their lowest close in six months, since late June. The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) revealed on Wednesday that US crude oil production is at over 13 million barrels per day. which is close to reaching an all-time high US gasoline stocks rose 5.4 million barrels last week. That’s just 1 million barrels more than analysts expected to increase.

The General Administration of Customs of China (GAC) reported that China’s November crude oil imports dropped 9.2% year-on-year. This is the first adjustment since April this year. Because the economy is weakening and the domestic oil stock is at a high level.

Investors are increasingly concerned about China’s economic outlook. After Moody’s Investors Service announced it downgraded the credit rating outlook of 8 Chinese banks to negative. from stable on Wednesday (Dec. 6), which came just one day after Moody’s downgraded the Chinese government’s credit rating outlook. This is due to concerns about the economic outlook and the country’s debt level.

Moody’s also downgraded Hong Kong’s credit outlook to negative. from stable He argued that the political and economic situations between Hong Kong and China are highly interconnected. The weakening trend of mainland China will also affect Hong Kong’s economy.

However, during the first period of trading WTI crude oil contract rose more than 1% in response to news of Russia joining hands with Saudi Arabia to stabilize oil prices in the market. While Mr. Alexander Novak, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, said OPEC+ is ready to further cut oil production in the first quarter of 2024 to eliminate speculation and volatility in the market.

By InfoQuest News Agency (08 Dec. ’23)

Tags: WTI, WTI oil, oil price