Oil Prices Drop by 3% Lowering Brent Crude to $59.48 a
Barrel
August 15, 2019
Oil prices shed
3% on Wednesday after weak economic data from China and the euro
zone revived global demand fears and U.S. crude inventories rose
unexpectedly for the second week in a row.
Brent crude
settled at $59.48 a barrel, shedding $1.82, or 3%, losing some
of the previous session’s sharp gains after the United States
moved to delay tariffs on some Chinese products.
The global
benchmark rose 4.7% on Tuesday, its biggest daily percentage
gain since December.
U.S. West Texas
Intermediate crude futures settled at $55.23 a barrel, falling
$1.87, or 3.3%, after having risen 4% the previous session, the
most in just over a month.
China reported
disappointing data for July, including a surprise drop in
industrial output growth to a more than 17-year low, underlining
widening economic cracks as the trade war with the United States
intensifies.
The global
economic slowdown, amplified by tariff conflicts and uncertainty
over Brexit, is also hitting European economies. A slump in
exports sent Germany’s economy into reverse in the second
quarter, data showed.
A second week of
unexpected builds in U.S. crude inventories added to the
pressure on the oil markets.
U.S. crude
stocks grew by 1.6 million barrels last week, compared with
analysts’ expectations for a decrease of 2.8 million barrels, as
refineries cut output, the Energy Information Administration
(EIA) said in its report.
At 440.5 million
barrels, inventories were about 3% above the five-year average
for this time of year, the EIA said in its weekly report.
(Reuters)
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