Crude Oil Futures

The fall of the prices of crude oil has been continuing for the whole week despite the obvious supply woes: the price of WTI and Brent fell below $90 and $100 respectively for the first time since the Russia-Ukraine war.   As of 13:40 GMT, the price of WTI and Brent were at $88.66 and $94.32 respectively. It is clear the fact that the US, world's larges economy, fell into recession played a major role in the lingering anxieties of the investors; the news that broke out on Thursday with the warning about the UK also falling into recession this year did not help alleviate the sentiments. Both the US and UK saw a sharp contraction of their respective economies, which is often blamed on the rising energy costs.  Although the Biden administration questions the technical definition of a recession, despite the economic showing contractions for two successive quarters, the Governor of  the Bank of England did not mince his words while announcing the impeding disaster, while hiking the inte

The price of oil remains almost static for the second successive week,  something that has not been satisfactorily accounted for by market analysts. Although the speculation is rife about the so-called demand destruction, the US crude inventories did not build last week; on the contrary, they fell significantly, feebly implying that was not the case. Both the API, American Petroleum Institute, and the EIA, US Energy Information Administration, reported the fall in the US crude inventories. On this occasion, however, there was no dramatic increase in the price of oil, defying the usual pattern. The most important announcement on the economic front this week was the US GDP growth data for the second quarter from April to June: the US economy, the world's largest, shrunk by 0.9%, recording the second successive contraction in two consecutive quarters; during the first quarter, the figure was 1.6%. Although the development satisfies the classic definition of a recession, the Biden admi