Brent rises more than $1/bbl on US economic woes

22 February 2008 11:50  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--Prices rose by more than $1/bbl on Friday to take Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures above $97.00/bbl on the back of a weak dollar and expectations that the US Federal Reserve will cut interest rates again.

 

By 11:20 GMT, April Brent crude had hit a high of $97.40/bbl, a gain of $1.16/bbl over Thursday’s close of $96.24/bbl, before easing back to around $97.30/bbl.

 

At the same time, April NYMEX crude was trading around $99.00/bbl, having hit a high of $99.04/bbl, a gain of $0.81/bbl over the previous close.

 

Prices gained ground after another set of weak economic data from the US raised expectations that the Federal Reserve was likely to cut interest rates in March.

 

US regional factory activity in February was reported as the weakest since the last recession, a much larger contraction than expected.

By: Giovanni Coiro
+44 20 8652 3214

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