August Nymex WTI prices are trading lower Thursday ahead of central bank decisions from the ECB and BoE. WTI has been consolidating in a fairly tight trading range in Asia this morning, with prices expected to remain reasonably underpinned by growing tensions between Iran and the west after Iranian media reported yesterday that Iran had threatened to destroy US military bases across the Middle East and target Israel within minutes of being attacked, as Revolutionary Guards extended test firing of ballistic missiles into a third day. The US Energy Information Administration’s inventory data is scheduled to be released later today at 1500GMT, a day later than normal due to yesterday’s US holiday. An 11 day strike in Norway’s oil sector continues to drag on, although Norway’s Oil Industry Association did make a statement saying that it was willing to negotiate an end to the strike as quickly as possible, although a labour union remained sceptical that any solution was imminent in the short-term after a second round of talks with employers failed to produce a deal over pensions. WTI last $86.82, down 84 cents.
EasyForexNews Research Team