Oil: a review of the market situation

Oil prices rose sharply during today's session, which was caused by the weakening of the dollar in response to weak data on retail sales and the labor market in the United States. Recall weakening of the dollar increases the demand for raw materials as an alternative investment and makes dollar-denominated commodities cheaper for buyers in other currencies.

Previously submitted report showed that sales in retail stores and restaurants, the US fell by 0.8% last month. On a seasonally adjusted, they were $ 439.77 billion, said Thursday the Ministry of Commerce. Retail sales fell 0.9% in December after rising 0.4% in November. Gasoline prices falling since last summer. But even excluding purchases at gas stations, retail sales were unchanged in January after falling 0.2% in December. Except of motor vehicles, sales fell 0.9% in January after an identical reduction in December. Except as gasoline and car sales rose 0.2% in January after reading unchanged in December. Economists had expected sales to fall by only 0.3% last month. Retailers sales rose 3.3% in January compared with a year earlier - at the same pace as in December. Retail sales data can be volatile from month to month. 0.8% decline in January, was presented with the error of 0.5 percentage points.

Also, today's growth is due to the positive response to reports from Minsk, where Vladimir Putin, Peter Poroshenko, Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande for 16 hours negotiated the settlement of the situation in Ukraine. Putin said that the participants in the meeting agreed on a cease February 15 combat operations in Ukraine, as well as the withdrawal of heavy weapons.

Meanwhile, add that concern excess of stocks of raw materials today pushed aside. Recall data on oil reserves in the United States, published yesterday, showed that stocks the last week rose by 4.87 million barrels. Analysts on average had forecast an increase of only 3.75 million barrels. Production volume jumped 49 th. Barrels per day (b / d) - up to 9.23 million b / d, the highest level since January 1983.

March futures price for US light crude oil WTI (Light Sweet Crude Oil) rose to 50.35 dollars per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

March futures price for North Sea petroleum mix of Brent rose $ 1.74 to $ 56.75 a barrel on the London Stock Exchange ICE Futures Europe.