The barrel price of Brent oil, which rose to $ 85.08 yesterday, completed the day at $ 84.77. The barrel price of Brent oil became 84.36 dollars with a decrease of 0.48 percent compared to the closing date as of 09:23 today. At the same time, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil found buyers at $80.50 a barrel.
The rise in expectations for potential interest rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve (Fed) was instrumental in the decline in prices.
st. Louis Fed President James Bullard stated that interest rate hikes should be continued after the latest data pointing out that inflation continues to be stubbornly high.
Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said the Fed will likely raise interest rates again to reduce high inflation. After the aforementioned statements, expectations that the Fed would continue to raise interest rates by 25 basis points increased.
On the other hand, the forecast of a decrease in the US crude oil stocks created the perception that the demand was high and supported the prices.
The American Petroleum Institute announced that the country’s crude oil stocks were forecast to decrease by 2 million 675 thousand barrels last week compared to the previous week. The market expectation was that there would be a decrease of 2 million 464 thousand barrels.
Official stock data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration will be released today.
On the other hand, strong economic data in China, the world’s largest oil importer, continues to support prices by positively affecting the country’s demand outlook.
While the gross domestic product in China grew by 4.5 percent in the first quarter, above expectations, refinery production reached record levels in March, supporting strong demand expectations for the coming period.
Technically, the range of $84.93 to $85.39 in Brent oil can be viewed as resistance, and the range of $84.22 to $83.97 as a support zone.
