August Nymex WTI prices are trading in positive territory Monday with prices so far seen in a range of $79.78 to $80.67 a barrel. Prices initially traded up to session highs of $80.67 after the threat of a storm shut nearly a quarter of the country’s offshore crude and gas output in the Gulf of Mexico. WTI prices then pared back to session lows of around $79.78 a barrel after U.S. forecasters said Sunday that Tropical Storm Debby appeared to be heading away from the U.S. offshore oil patch. WTI prices have since recovered moderately from session lows to trade back to $80.37 with the market paring back to now trade $80.14 a barrel, up 38 cents from Friday’s NY close. Oil prices came off by more than 5% last week as fears of a slowing global economy and a surprise increase in U.S. supplies began to weigh on demand for WTI. Market participants will be looking ahead to this week’s EU summit for some flavour of action to address the region’s ongoing debt crisis, which has accounted for a large proportion of the decline in oil prices.
EasyForexNews Research Team