The barrel price of Brent oil, which rose to $81.16 yesterday, finished the day at $77.18. The barrel price of Brent oil increased by 0.41 percent compared to the closing price at 09.26, reaching 77.50 dollars. At the same time, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil was sold at $73.77 per barrel.
The ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, where most of the hydrocarbon resources are located, and the positive economic developments in the USA, the world’s largest oil consumer, were effective in the increase in oil prices.
The Israeli army, which has been continuing controlled conflicts with Hezbollah since October 2023, carried out hundreds of air strikes on Lebanon’s southern cities as well as the Bekaa and Baalbek regions on September 23. Oil prices, which fell by more than 4 percent yesterday following the news flow that Hezbollah was seeking a ceasefire with Israel, regained some of these losses on the new trading day.
The US State Department stated that Hezbollah’s ceasefire call is related to its loss of power as a result of Israeli attacks in the last few weeks, but it is not clear what this call covers or does not cover.
While optimism continues in the USA that inflation will be reduced to the targeted level before the economy goes into recession, experts are waiting for the inflation data to be announced in the country tomorrow to measure economic activity.
Analysts noted that inflation data to be announced tomorrow may give signals about whether the US economy will make a soft landing. In addition, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting minutes to be announced today are expected to give possible clues about future policies.
It is considered certain that the US Federal Reserve (Fed) will cut 25 basis points each, for a total of 50 basis points, in the two meetings it will hold until the end of the year.
On the other hand, data flow indicating that crude oil stocks in the USA have increased much more than expectations limits the rise in prices. The American Petroleum Institute predicted that the country’s commercial crude oil stocks increased by 10 million 900 thousand barrels last week compared to the previous week. Market expectation was that stocks would increase by 1 million 950 thousand barrels. The US Energy Information Administration will release official stock data later in the day.
It is stated that technically, the range between 80.29 and 83.11 dollars in Brent oil can be watched as resistance, and the range between 75.52 and 73.57 dollars can be watched as support zone.
