Oil: Daily losses trimmed gains by around 3.8% for the week

Oil prices lost ground on Friday after reports that the supply disruption in the Gulf of Mexico was short-lived. However, on a weekly basis, WTI and Brent maintained significant gains as fears of a possible recession in the global economy receded.

In particular, the slow type West Texas Intermediate for September delivery fell on Friday by $2.25 or 2.4%, to set its price at $92.09 per barrel. In week WTI remained in positive territory with “jump” 3.5%.

As for press oil Brentthe contract for October delivery, lost 76 cents or 0.8% at $98.84 a barrel, but in the week it strengthened against 4.1%.

The “black gold” recovered this week from heavy losses of the previous 5 days, after strong data on US jobs and decelerating inflation, which revived hopes that the US central bank will not need to raise rates. interest rates as aggressive as traders fear, with some leeway to tame still-high inflation without tipping the economy into recession.

However, there is something ironic to this market narrative, notes Alex Kuptsikevich, an analyst at FxPro, explaining: “The sharp slowdown in price growth and lower fuel prices has fueled speculation that the Fed will slow its tightening of its policy. But oil is a risky asset, so the rest of the market reaped the benefits.”

“The bottom line is that oil rallied this week because the economy signaled the effects of a potential recession over the past two months,” Kuptsikevich added.

The rally in oil prices this week is a “picture of a corrective recovery,” the analyst commented, warning that if bulls “don’t find a new reason to buy WTI near $94 in the coming days, then we should expect a retracement of bear market”.