21.05.202214:11 Forex Analysis & Reviews: Crude prices rise for forth week in a row

On Friday, on European stock exchanges, the global price of crude reported an increase on investors' fears about the prospects of declining oil reserves. At the same time, the uptrend in the commodity market was recorded for the fourth week in a row for the first time since early February.

As a result, the price of July futures on Brent grew by 0.46% to $112.57 per barrel, while July futures on WTI oil increased by 0.4% to $110.35 per barrel. Yesterday, both contracts rose by 2.7%.

The main upward factor for the oil price the day before was the concern of the commodity market participants about the forthcoming shortage of crude against the background of the US Department of Energy data on the fall of its commercial reserves released last week. Thus, according to a recent report from the country's Energy Department, oil reserves slumped by 3.4 million barrels over the week to 420.8 million barrels. At the same time, analysts forecasted an increase in reserves by 1.4 million barrels.

The key reason for such a spectacular downturn of the oil reserves indicator market experts call the approach of the annual hurricane season, when a stock of raw materials for a rainy day becomes the main reassuring factor.

An additional reason for market participants' fears about its future shortage continues to be a reduction in supply due to the Russian-Ukrainian armed conflict, which has been going on for almost three months.

European traders did not go unnoticed by the US Federal Reserve's decisive steps to tighten monetary policy against the backdrop of a permanently rising inflation rate.

Thus, following its meeting in early May, the US Fed raised its key rate by 50 basis points, now its range is 0.75-1% yearly. Earlier in March, the US regulator raised the rate by 25 basis points. The last time the central bank raised the rate at two meetings in a row was back in 2006. At the same time, an increase by 50 basis points at the same time has not been seen since 2000.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell recently said that the central bank planned to act aggresively to bring the rate of inflation in the states back to the target of 2%. The US Fed's decision, Powell said, would not even be affected by the prospect of a declining economy in the short term.

In addition, on Friday, investors assessed the report of the US oil and gas service company Baker Hughes, which reported that over the past week the number of active oil rigs in the United States increased by 13 to 576 units.