Oil prices decreased on Friday due to demand fears fueled by weak US economic data and recession fears.
International benchmark Brent crude traded at $80.92 per barrel at 09.28 a.m. local time (0628 GMT), a 0.22% decrease from the closing price of $81.10 a barrel in the previous trading session.
Meanwhile, the American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) traded at $77.19 per barrel, down 0.23% from the previous session’s close of $77.37 per barrel.
The decline in prices was due to weak US economic data and the rise in US gasoline inventories, raising concerns about a recession and slowing global oil demand.
The number of Americans filing first-time unemployment claims rose by 5,000 last week to 245,000, according to Labor Department data released on Thursday.
The figure came in higher than market estimates of 240,000, while the previous week’s figure was revised up by 1,000 from 239,000 to 240,000.
The head of the Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank Loretta Mester said Thursday that the US central bank still has more interest rate increases ahead of it.
Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Lorie Logan also said that it is still being assessed if Fed has made enough progress on fighting inflation based on three markers, including ‘further and sustained’ improvement in measures of inflation.
Meanwhile, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) announcement on late Wednesday that gasoline inventories increased by around 1.3 million barrels to 223.5 million barrels during the week ending April 14 also puts downward pressure on prices, signaling low demand.
The markets will closely watch if the demand will pick up during the summer travel season in the US and in the second half of the year in China, the world’s biggest oil importer.
On the supply side, news that oil shipments from Russia’s western ports will exceed 2.4 million barrels per day in April, also pressures prices, meaning the shipments will reach its highest since 2019, despite Russia’s commitment to cut production.
