Oil rises on prospects of less aggressive U.S. rate hike
Shafaq News / Oil prices rose on Friday amid prospects of a less aggressive U.S. rate hike, although worries about a recovery in demand capped gains.
Brent crude futures for September delivery rose $1.25, or 1.3%, to $100.35 a barrel by 0300 GMT, while WTI crude rose 90 cents, or 0.9%, to $96.68 a barrel.
"Oil is trading very much to the beat of Federal Reserve policy and the implications it could have on both demand destruction and the U.S. dollar," said Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management.
The Fed's most hawkish policymakers on Thursday said they favoured another 75-basis-point interest rate increase at the U.S. central bank's policy meeting this month, not the bigger rate raise that traders had raced to price in after a report Wednesday showed inflation was accelerating.
The rate hike uncertainty and weak economic data pushed both oil contracts to lows on Thursday which were below the close on Feb. 23, the day before Russia invaded Ukraine in what Moscow calls "a special military operation".
Still, both Brent and WTI had clawed back nearly all losses by the end of the trading session.
However, concerns about the outlook for demand continued to keep a lid on oil prices.
(Reuters)
