Oil Prices Rise after Dollar Weakens amid Focus on OPEC+ Meeting

Oil prices rose slightly on a weaker dollar as traders looked ahead to Thursday’s OPEC+ meeting to determine direction.

Brent crude was trading around $72 a barrel after falling 3% last week, while WTI crude topped $68. 

China’s factory activity expanded for a second straight month in November, an early sign of a recovery in the world’s biggest crude importer after a raft of stimulus measures were announced in late September.

Latest Oil Prices:

WTI Crude $68.07  +0.10%

Brent Crude $71.88 +0.06%

Murban Crude $71.35 -1.31%

Louisiana Light $70.67  -1.72%

Bonny Light $78.62  -2.84%

Opec Basket $71.82 -1.56%

Mars US $74.33 -1.67%

Gasoline  $1.897  -0.07%

Natural Gas $3.194 -5.03%

The dollar posted its first weekly decline since September, making currency-denominated commodities more attractive, while OPEC+ postponed its meeting by four days.

The belief in the US is that the president can smoothly control the flow of energy and its prices. That idea, of course, is far from reality, Bloomberg wrote.

Traders will be looking for clues about the alliance’s future policy, as the alliance is widely expected to delay a modest increase in production for a third time.

Crude has been trading in a narrow range since mid-October, weighed down by geopolitical developments in the Middle East and Russia, the return to power of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and a bleak economic outlook in China, the world’s biggest importer of crude.

In the Middle East, a truce between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah appeared to be holding, although both sides accused each other of violating the ceasefire. 

Meanwhile, Tehran pledged to help the Syrian government after rebels seized the second-largest city of Aleppo in an escalation of fighting.