The price of oil falls on fears of a recession

MOSCOW, 14 Oct — PRIME. World oil prices on Friday evening moved to an active decline, the focus of investors remain the risks of a recession, follows from the trading data and the expert’s commentary.

As of 20.04 Moscow time, the price of December futures for Brent crude fell by 2.72%, to $92 per barrel, November futures for WTI — by 3.42%, to $86.06. During the day, the price of oil fluctuated, and in the evening it moved to an active decline. Since the beginning of the week, “black gold” has fallen in price by 6-7%.

On Thursday was published statistics on oil reserves in the US. Commercial stocks of this type of raw material in the country increased by 9.9 million barrels over the week, to 439.1 million, the highest since the end of July 2021. At the same time, the country’s strategic oil reserve has fallen to its lowest level since June 1984. Oil production in the United States for the week fell by 100 thousand barrels per day, to 11.9 million barrels per day.

Also on Thursday this week was published statistics on annual inflation in the US. The rise in prices turned out to be somewhat stronger than analysts expected – in September the figure was 8.2% against 8.3% in August, while a slowdown to 8.1% was predicted.

Investors believe that the US Federal Reserve will try to bring inflation under control with tight monetary methods, such as raising the key rate. Thus, according to CME Group, 97.3% of analysts expect it to rise in November by 75 basis points, to 3.75-4% per annum, although the day before, 80% of analysts assumed such a possibility. Traders fear that the “aggressive” actions of the US regulator could lead to a global recession. In such conditions, the demand for oil tends to decrease.

“Concerns about a recession and the resulting impact on demand will now remain in the spotlight as there is a bit more clarity on supply after the OPEC+ meeting,” Stacey Morris, head of energy research at Alerian VettaFi, told Bloomberg. ).

In addition, data from the US oilfield service company Baker Hughes on the number of active oil rigs in the US were released on Friday. In the week to October 14, their number increased by eight – up to 610 units.