Oil falls with inflation worries weighing on markets
BNN Bloomberg
Oil fell as financial markets were pressured by stubbornly high US inflation, bolstering the case for Federal Reserve interest rate hikes.
West Texas Intermediate futures have whipsawed wildly this week, and were down about 2 per cent on Thursday. European equities slid, along with US futures, while the dollar rose, making commodities priced in the currency less attractive.
As oil markets continue to wrestle with the ever-changing outlook for China’s virus lockdowns and uncertainty about the European Union’s proposed ban on Russian oil imports, stockpiles of refined fuels are continuing to decline. On Thursday the International Energy Agency said that there is currently an “almost universal product shortage” and low Russian exports are worsening the tightness.