NEW YORK: Oil traded lower yesterday, pressured by ample supply and concern over a weakening of demand growth in major consumer nations, as well as by a rise in the US dollar.
“I think currencies are the focus,” said Richard Ilczyszyn, chief market strategist and founder of iitrader.com LLC in Chicago.
“The bottom line is that with the stronger dollar and dollar index basket rally... you can just take 10 percent off the top of commodity prices across the board. With all the geopolitical risk escalating overseas, oil should be popping. But (the falls are) all currency as far as I'm concerned.”
Brent was down 67 cents at US$98.30 a barrel at 1448GMT.
Prices have declined around 15 per cent from a nine-month peak of US$115.71 reached in June and US crude was down 40 cents at US$94.02 a day after dropping on government data that showed US crude inventories rose 3.7 million barrels last week. Reuters