Oil: an overview of the market situation

The price of oil has increased significantly, rising at the same time to its highest level in more than 15 months, which was associated with the publication of the U.S. data. We also add that the price difference between Brent Crude and WT decreased to less than $ 1, which is fixed for the first time since 2010.

Prices rose by 1.5% after the Labor Department reported that the number of claims for unemployment benefits fell to 334,000 last week, which is the lowest since the beginning of May. In addition, it was reported that the figures of the previous week were revised up to 358,000 from 360,000. Economists had expected the number of hits will be 349 thousand

Numbers fluctuate in recent weeks, which is probably due to seasonal factors, such as the closure of some plants in the summer. Four-week moving average of claims fell by 5,250 to 346,000 last week. The report also stated that the number of continuing claims rose by 91,000 to 3.114 million in the week ended July 6.

The report suggests that employers are laying off fewer workers, and in many cases increase the staff. Over the past nine months, the economy added a little more than 200,000 jobs, while unemployment remains high.

The steady growth in employment may prompt the Fed / Fed / reduce incentives, including monthly purchases of bonds worth 85 billion dollars. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has repeatedly said that the central bank will cut the program later this year and complete stimulation to mid-2014 if the economy and the labor market strengthened in line with forecasts.

Note also that the price increase also supports yesterday's report on U.S. oil reserves, which showed that the results of the seven-day period that ended on July 12, crude oil inventories in the U.S. fell to 6,902 million barrels to 367.016 million barrels level. It is worth noting that according to the average forecasts of experts, the reserves had to be down only by 1.9 million barrels, after a decline of 9.9 million over the previous seven days.

The cost of the August futures on U.S. light crude oil WTI (Light Sweet Crude Oil) rose to 107.65 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

August futures price for North Sea Brent crude oil mixture increased to $ 108.50 a barrel on the London exchange ICE Futures Europe.