Oil prices rose more than 2% on Friday and posted weekly gains of over 8%, as Russia announced plans to reduce oil production next month after the West imposed price caps on the country’s crude and fuel.
Brent crude futures rose to settle at $1.89, or 2.2%, to $86.39 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures (WTI) were up $1.66, or 2.1%, at $79.72. Brent posted a weekly gain of 8.1%, while WTI gained 8.6%. Russia plans to reduce its crude oil production in March by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd), or about 5% of output, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said.
The US Dollar Index (DXY), which tracks the American Dollar (USD) performance against a basket of six currencies, finished the week at around 103.585, up 0.58%, a headwind for the AUD/USD.
Wall Street closed mixed, with the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones registering gains of 0.22% and 0.50%, each at 4,090.46 and 33,869.27, respectively. Contrarily, the Nasdaq 100 dived 0.61%, down to 11,718.12.
Economic Data
Data reported in the US economic calendar witnessed the University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment, which exceeded expectations and reached 66.4, showing an improvement in financial conditions. Moreover, the projected inflation rate for the upcoming year has increased from 3.9%, as reported in January’s final reading, to 4.2%. On the other hand, the estimated inflation rate for a five-year span remains unchanged at 2.9%.
Key Developments
The USD/CHF climbed back to the 0.9200 area on Friday, following Thursday’s price action, which formed a hammer, that exacerbated the USD/CHF recovery, to current exchange rates. At the time of writing, the USD/CHF is trading at 0.9246, above its opening price by 0.35%.
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