22.04.202110:15 Forex Analysis & Reviews: Oil prices broke the weekly low and continue to decline

On Thursday morning, the price of the leading oil brands continues to steadily sink for the third day in a row. The reason for this depressing negative dynamics was the concern of market participants about the prospects for demand amid the growth of COVID-19 diseases and disappointment with the data on stocks in the United States.

The price of June futures for Brent North Sea crude oil sank by 0.46% to trade at $65.02 per barrel, and June futures for WTI blend – by 0.47% to $61.06 per barrel.

At the close of trading on Wednesday, Brent and WTI reported the lowest levels since April 14. May contracts for WTI crude oil showed a drop of 2.1% to trade at $61.35 per barrel, and June futures for Brent crude oil fell by 1.9% to $65.32 per barrel.

May gasoline contracts on Wednesday fell by 1.7% to $1.98 per gallon, while heating oil futures for May lost 1.4% and reported $1.85 per gallon. May contracts for natural gas sank 1.3% to $2.69 per million BTU.

In contrast to the stock markets, which were able to move to strong growth, oil prices continue to remain in a deep depression for the third day in a row and have already fallen by 3-3.5%.

Experts call the continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic in India and Japan the main reasons for the prolonged fall in the black gold market. India is the third largest importer of oil in the world after China and America. According to recent data from India, the daily increase in diseases in the country is approaching 300,000. Another epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic is Japan, where the authorities plan to tighten quarantine restrictions.

An additional factor for the decline in oil prices was also published on the eve of the statistics of the US Department of Energy on reserves. According to the report of the Ministry of Energy, commercial reserves of black gold in the country over the past week increased by 0.6 million barrels. At the same time, analysts predicted a drop of 2.9 million barrels. Previously, stocks had been permanently declining for the previous three weeks.

In addition, the data reflected a decrease in oil reserves in the Cushing storage facility (Oklahoma) by 1.3 million barrels, but the overall level of oil production in America did not change, remaining at around 11 million barrels per day.

Gasoline reserves decreased by 100,000 barrels, while distillate reserves decreased by 1.1 million barrels. Earlier, analysts expected an increase in gasoline stocks by 800,000 barrels and a decrease in distillate stocks by 1.3 million barrels.