DTN Oil Update
Oil Futures Reversed Early Gains Despite USD Weakness
HOUSTON (DTN) -- Crude oil futures settled lower on Thursday, driven by a bearish sentiment amid sluggish trading activity and weakening of the U.S. dollar against a basket of foreign currencies.
The U.S. Dollar Index was at 107.89, down by 14% compared to the previous trading session and reversed its upward trend from last week after the Federal Reserve announced fewer interest rates cuts in 2025 on Dec. 18.
Thin trading activity continued after the Christmas holiday break and market participants appeared to have ignored lower than expected initial unemployment claims data from last week.
The U.S. Labor Department reported early Thursday that the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims was 219,000, in the week ending Dec. 21, which is a decrease of 1,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 220,000. The figure was better than expected as it was below the median consensus of economists and analysts of 225,000.
On Thursday, China's National Bureau of Statistics published the results of its fifth national economic census, with 2023 gross domestic product GDP revised to 129.4 trillion yuan (nearly $18 trillion), an increase of 3.4 trillion yuan from the preliminary calculation, according to a report from Chinese news agency Xinhua.
"As the world's second-largest economy, the country's average contribution to global economic growth has remained around 30 percent for the past five years," the report said.
Separately, an exclusive report from Reuters said that Chinese authorities have agreed toâ?¯ 3 trillion yuan ($411 billion) worth of special treasury bonds in 2025. See the report here: https://www.reuters.com/…
However, market participants still perceive a bearish outlook for the main crude benchmarks in 2025, supported by weak global oil demand, mainly from China, and abundant supplies.
Due to the Christmas holiday, the Energy Information Administration's Weekly Petroleum Status Report will be delayed by two days this week and will be released Friday, Dec. 27 at 1:00 p.m. EST. Meanwhile, the Weekly Natural Gas Storage data will be released on Friday morning at 10:30 a.m. EST.
NYMEX WTI futures contract for February delivery dropped $0.56 to $69.54 bbl while the front-month ICE Brent crude contract edged down $0.45 to $73.13 bbl. January RBOB futures fell $0.0138 to $1.9451 gallon while ULSD futures for January delivery dropped $0.0187 to $2.2028 gallon.
Maria Eugenia Garcia can be reached at Maria.Garcia@dtn.com
