© Archyde.com. What are the reasons for the rise in crude oil prices?
Arabictrader.com – Prices rose with the passage of trading today, Friday, in light of the state of optimism in the markets about the recovery of global demand for crude oil in the coming period, especially after the release of some US economic data yesterday, Thursday, which reinforced optimism about the ability of the US economy to avoid recession.
US crude spot contracts rose by 1.37% to record 82.06 per barrel. Meanwhile, crude futures rose by 1.06%, to record $88.31 a barrel.
Crude oil prices rose during trading today, Friday, in light of optimism about the recovery of global demand for crude oil in the coming period, especially the positivity of US economic growth data issued yesterday, Thursday, as data issued by the US Census Bureau revealed that the estimated reading of gross domestic product in the United States has It grew by 2.9% during the fourth quarter of last year, which is much better than market expectations, which indicated a growth of the US economy by only 2.6%, but it is lower than the previous reading, which recorded a growth of the US economy by 3.2% during the third quarter, after it was revised on Towards a high of 2.6%.
At the same time, oil prices benefited from the calm pace of the spread of the Corona virus inside China, which may increase the Chinese demand for crude oil during the current year, especially since China is considered one of the largest consumers of oil in the world, as the health authorities in China said yesterday that the number of daily deaths due to Corona in China has decreased by about 80% since the beginning of this January, after the China Disease Control Center announced that about 896 deaths from the dangerous coronavirus were recorded last Monday, a decrease of 79% compared to deaths at the beginning of this month. The central added that severe cases in hospitals also decreased to 36,000 cases at the beginning of this week, which represents a decrease of 72% from 128,000 cases at the beginning of January.
Likewise, US oil inventories data continues to cast a positive shadow on crude oil prices because it increases optimism about the continued strength of US demand for oil this year, as data issued by the Energy Information Administration showed the positivity of US oil inventories data clearly this week, as the index recorded US oil stocks increased by about 500 thousand barrels this week, while market expectations indicated an increase in crude stocks by about 1.2 million barrels in the same period, after it had recorded an increase of about 8.4 million barrels in the previous week.
With regard to other energy sources, gasoline contracts rose during Friday’s trading by 0.97%, to record $2.6434 per gallon. Meanwhile, contracts decreased and recorded $2.831 per million thermal units. Futures rose by 0.11%, and recorded about $3.34002.