Oil Slips as Thin Summer Trading Leaves Crude Tracking Equities

Oil edged lower, swinging in thin summer trading, as growing supplies and a shaky economic outlook weigh on the market.

(Bloomberg) — Oil edged lower, swinging in thin summer trading, as growing supplies and a shaky economic outlook weigh on the market.

West Texas Intermediate futures traded below $79 a barrel, swinging in a 2% range on Thursday. With open interest hovering near January lows, prices have mostly followed broader market sentiment. The US Oil Fund ETF also reported its biggest daily outflow since 2020 on Wednesday, with more than $180 million being pulled from one of the oil market’s largest exchange-traded products.

Oil has dropped this week amid signs more barrels may be entering the market. The Biden administration is in talks with Venezuela to explore a temporary lifting of sanctions that have hindered its crude sales. That comes on top of a surge in exports from Iran this month.

Also undercutting June’s rally — which was driven by Saudi Arabian and Russian supply cuts — is the deteriorating economic situation in China, signs that US interest rates will need to stay higher for longer and dismal economic data in Europe.

Despite this week’s bearish mood, physical markets continue to remain tight. OPEC+ curbs have helped drive a sharp slump in global oil inventories over the past month, according to data from Kpler. And in the US, crude stockpiles fell by 6.1 million barrels last week to the lowest since December, the Energy Information Administration said Wednesday.

To get Bloomberg’s Energy Daily newsletter direct into your inbox, click here.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com