Oil futures traded marginally lower early Tuesday as expectations for a slowing global economy continued to offset the impact of the latest round of production cuts announced by members of OPEC+.
Price action
-
West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery
CL.1,
+0.51% CL00,
+0.51%
fell 8 cents, or 0.1%, to $79.72 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. -
June Brent crude
BRN00,
+0.29% BRNM23,
+0.29% ,
the global benchmark, fell 12 cents, or 0.1%, to at $83.08 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe. -
Back on Nymex, May gasoline
RBK23,
+0.52%
fell 0.4% to $2.80 a gallon, while May heating oil
HOK23,
-1.06%
fell 1.4% to $2.644 a gallon. -
May natural gas
NGK23,
+0.60%
gained 2.7% to $2.23 per million British thermal units.
Market drivers
Members of OPEC+ helped boost oil prices sharply last week when they announced plans to cut production by 1.16 million barrels per day beginning in May through the end of 2023. The cut followed another major cut announced in October.
However, some market analysts believe traders are interpreting the cuts as a sign that oil producers see a slowdown in global economic growth ahead, which is why the initial bump in prices has started to fade, said Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, in emailed commentary.
This post was originally published on Market Watch
