Oil Eases in Asia, Brent Flirts with $ 40
Oil benchmarks on both sides of Atlantic resumed their broader downtrend after a brief stint to the upside seen on Thursday, as a stronger US dollar weighed on the black gold.
Oil: Downside capped by supportive fundamentals
Currently both crude benchmarks are seen easing a bit, with WTI losing -0.65% to $ 38.09 while the Brent oil drops -0.72% to $ 40.04. Oil prices reversed a part of previous gains and slipped back in the red, largely on the back of renewed buying interest seen around the greenback as markets favour the US currency heading into the key US jobs report.
Although the downside remains capped by upbeat fundamentals after the latest EIA monthly report showed on Thursday, the US crude oil production fell by 56,000 barrels per day to 9.179 million bpd in January, marking the fourth straight month of decline and hit the lowest levels since Oct 2014.
Moreover, the latest Reuters poll revealed that the oil experts have raised their average price forecasts for 2016 for the first time in 10 months, which also provides some respite to the oil bulls. While upbeat set of China manufacturing PMIs also helps cushion the losses in oil.
(Market News Provided by FXstreet)
