Oil prices fell 2% – yesterday, Friday – with a decrease in liquidity in the market, at the end of a week marred by concern regarding Chinese demand and controversy over the West placing a ceiling on the price of Russian crude.
Brent futures fell 2%, to settle at $83.63 a barrel, giving up early gains.
US West Texas Intermediate crude futures also fell 2.1%, to record $76.28 a barrel.
There was no settlement of WTI contracts – the day before yesterday – Thursday – due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, and trading volumes remained low.
In this regard, Phil Flynn – an analyst at Price Futures Group – says, “Because the trading volume is weak following the holiday, we gave up some of the gains here to some extent.”
Both contracts recorded their third consecutive weekly decline, following reaching their lowest levels in 10 months this week.
Brent ended the week down 4.6%, while WTI fell 4.7%.
For its part, China – the world’s largest oil importer – announced yesterday, Friday, a new record high number of daily infections with Covid-19, as the country’s cities continued to impose a ban on movement and other restrictions with the aim of controlling the outbreak of the disease.
On the other hand, diplomats from the Group of Seven and the European Union are discussing imposing a price ceiling on Russian oil between $65 and $70 a barrel, but no agreement has yet been reached.
According to European diplomats, a meeting of representatives of European Union governments that was scheduled for Friday evening to discuss this proposal was canceled.
Gold settles
On the other hand, gold prices stabilized below the highest level in a week, which it recorded earlier during Friday’s trading, with the rise of the dollar, but expectations of a less sharp interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve (the US Central Bank) put the yellow metal on the path to achieving a small weekly gain.
And gold settled in instant transactions at $ 1754.7 an ounce. And prices achieved the highest level in the session at 1761.17 dollars an ounce, in earlier trading on Friday.
US gold futures contracts also recorded an increase of 0.5% at settlement, to reach $1,754.
The dollar index rose 0.2%, making it more expensive for overseas buyers to hold dollar-denominated gold.
Regarding developments in China, the largest consumer of gold in the world, Jim Wyckoff, chief analyst at Kitco Metals, said, “The Corona virus situation in China does not seem to be improving, so this will be a major problem for the markets, not only the gold market, but for all markets here during this period.” the next two weeks.”
Gold is a hedge once morest inflation, but high interest rates discourage investment in the precious metal, which does not yield a return.
The minutes of the November 1-2 meeting showed that a “significant majority” of policy makers in the US Central Bank agreed that it “would soon be appropriate” to slow the pace of interest rate hikes.
