Oil Prices Mixed; U.S. Crude Down 20% from 52-Week High

Investing.com – Oil prices were mixed on Friday morning in Asia, with U.S. crude now down by more than 20% from its 52-week high and fell into in the bear market territory.

for December delivery dropped 0.2% to $60.58 per barrel at 11:00 PM ET (04:00 GMT) on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while for January 2019 delivery traded 0.1% higher to $70.72 a barrel on London’s Intercontinental Exchange.

Analysts said a faster-than-expected build up in the stockpile, concerns over an economic slowdown and waivers the U.S. granted to eight countries on Monday that allowed them to continue buying Iranian crude despite U.S. sanctions were the main catalysts for the oil dip.

“As OPEC exports continue to rise, inventories continue to build which is putting downward pressure on oil prices,” analysts at Bernstein Energy said.

“A slowdown in the global economy remains the key downside risk to oil,” Bernstein added.

Meanwhile, sanctions on Iran are less severe than most analysts expected after the Trump administration announced it granted exemptions to eight countries to allow them to continue buying limited amounts of crude for the next six months.

“As a result, oil supplies are going to be higher than the market anticipated,” said Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates. “So it seems to me that the loss of Iranian supplies is only going to be between 1 and 1.2 million barrels per day, and the OPEC and non-OPEC producers have more than made up for that.”

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