Oil Prices Attempt Recovery After Erasing Most Of 2024 Rally

NEW YORK, Aug 7 (Bernama-Sputnik) -- Crude prices saw a slight uptick at Tuesday’s close, attempting a reset after this week's market risk aversion, driven by fears of a US recession, erased most of the 2024 oil rally, reported Sputnik.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude settled at US$73.20 per barrel, up 27 cents, or 0.4 per cent. On Monday, WTI sank to US$71.69, its lowest since the week of February 2, when it plumbed US$$71.41.

For the year, the US crude benchmark remained up about 2.5 per cent, versus its 2023 close of US$71.65.

Before a torrid selloff that began two months ago, WTI rose to as high as US$87.67 in April, rallying 18 per cent on the year at that time.

UK-origin Brent crude ended Tuesday’s session at US$76.48 per barrel, rising 18 cents, or 0.3 per cent. Brent’s low on the prior day was US$75.06, a bottom not seen since the week to December 29, when it fell to US$74.79.

Year-to-date, the global crude benchmark was down 0.7 per cent, versus its 2023 closing price of US$77.04.

Brent reached US$92.18 in April, rallying almost 20 per cent at that point.

Scott Shelton, a crude oil broker and client advisor at ICAP in Durham, North Carolina, urged for a closing of short — or bearish positions — in crude, saying he could not immediately foresee another huge oil price drop triggered by macro markets that included stocks, currencies, bonds and metals.

But Shelton also cautioned against turning fully bullish on oil. “The issue for me is that I am not sure that now is the right time to get long either!” he wrote in his Tuesday note to ICAP’s clients.

Worries about a potential US recession have grown since last week after the Labor Department reported that non-farm payrolls grew by just 114,000 in July — the smallest since the jobs boom that began with the post-coronavirus recovery period. US unemployment also rose to 4.3 per cent in July, the highest since December 2021.

-- BERNAMA-SPUTNIK