Oil futures rallied on Tuesday, taking a look at weaker rally and dollar equity markets as traders halted cuts in the International Energy Agency’s forecast for 2021 crude demand.
“Crude prices are recovering from a weaker dollar but they do not want to comment on the slide seen last weekend,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst. at Oanda, in note.
West Texas Raw Intermediate for Delivery in February CL.1,
CLG21,
rose 19 cents, or 0.4%, to $ 52.62 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. March WTI crude CLH21,
the most traded contract, up 20 cents, or 0.4%, was at $ 52.61 per barrel.
March Brent crude BRN00,
BRNH21,
the global benchmark, it gained 57 cents, or 1%, to rip it at $ 55.32 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe.
WTI gained ground last week, and Brent fell 1.6%. There was no settlement for WTI on Monday when U.S. markets were closed for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday.
US DXY ICE Dollar Index,
volume of the frontier against a basket of six major competitors, fell 0.3% to 90.526. A weaker dollar can boost commodities at the U.S. unit price, making them cheaper for consumers of other currencies.
Moya said the new COVID-19 modifications from the UK and Denmark make energy markets nervous that the short-term outlook could worsen.
Meanwhile, the EMI on Tuesday cut the forecast for demand in 2021 by 280,000 barrels per day to 5.5 million barrels per day. The bleaker forecast was heavily focused at the start of the year, with a 600,000-barrel a day cut to its forecasts for the first quarter, and a 300,000-barrel a day cut to its forecasts for the second quarter.