Oil: an overview of the market situation

The price of oil rose moderately today , which was due to the tense situation in Ukraine before the presidential elections scheduled for May 25.

As it became known , the Ukrainian army on Thursday lost more than a dozen soldiers in battle with pro-Russian separatists.

We also add that the oil market continues today technical correction waiting for news that could give the market movement . Little influenced by the U.S. data , which showed that sales of newly built homes rose in April , becoming the latest sign of the revival of the housing market after the winter stagnation. New home sales rose 6.4% from March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 433,000 . Value for March was revised to increase to 407,000 . Economists forecast that monthly sales will grow by 426,000 in April.

However, today is characterized by low trading activity of market participants , which is partly due to the strengthening of the U.S. dollar on the FOREX. Low activity on the oil futures market today is also due to the upcoming three-day weekend in the U.S. and the lack of trading on the NYMEX April 26 in connection with a federal holiday on Memorial Day.

Dynamics is also dictated by the situation in Libya . Note that the protesters in Libya occupied the head office of the company, managing the oil port of Brega - the only one of the ports on the east of the country , which continued to work during the nine-month opposition factions vying for power . On Wednesday, the country's oil production was about 230,000 barrels , compared with 1.4 million barrels per day last year.

Support for WTI crude oil continues to have a decrease in energy reserves in the United States . U.S. crude inventories declined for the last week to 391.3 million barrels - the lowest level in six months.

The cost of the July futures on U.S. light crude oil WTI (Light Sweet Crude Oil) rose to $ 104.36 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX).

July futures price for North Sea Brent crude oil mixture rose 6 cents to $ 110.42 a barrel on the London exchange ICE Futures Europe.