<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oil prices held steady on Thursday following a steep decline, as investors weighed Saudi Arabia\u2019s willingness to tolerate lower prices, a potential increase in OPEC+ production, and weak U.S. economic data pointing to recession risks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brent crude futures slipped 6 cents, or 0.1%, to $61.00 a barrel by 07:30 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell 12 cents, or 0.2%, to $58.09 a barrel, after closing Wednesday at its lowest level since March 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saudi Arabia has reportedly informed industry insiders and allies that it is not planning further supply cuts to support prices and is prepared for a prolonged period of low oil prices. At the same time, several OPEC+ members are expected to propose accelerating output hikes for a second consecutive month when the group meets on May 5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Adding pressure to prices, data on Wednesday showed the U.S. economy contracted in the first quarter for the first time in three years. The decline was attributed to a sharp increase in imports, as businesses rushed to front-load shipments ahead of new tariffs. Economists surveyed by Reuters believe Trump\u2019s tariff policies are significantly raising the chances of a global recession in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In response to the weakening demand outlook, analytics firm Kpler downgraded its 2025 global oil demand growth forecast to 640,000 barrels per day, down from a previous estimate of 800,000 barrels per day. A Reuters poll of 40 economists and analysts now sees Brent averaging $68.98 per barrel in 2025, compared to a forecast of $72.94 last month. WTI is expected to average $65.08 per barrel, down from $69.16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the negative outlook, U.S. crude inventories fell by 2.7 million barrels last week, well above expectations for a 429,000-barrel increase. The draw was driven by stronger exports and rising refinery demand, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Oil prices held steady on Thursday following a steep decline, as investors weighed Saudi Arabia\u2019s willingness to tolerate lower prices, a potential increase in OPEC+ production, and weak U.S. economic data pointing to recession risks. Brent crude futures slipped 6 cents, or 0.1%, to $61.00 a barrel by 07:30 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":60920,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,6827,49,37,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-commodities-news","category-daily-economic-reports","category-economic-reports","category-forex-markets","category-market-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114218"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114219,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114218\/revisions\/114219"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}