(New York) Oil prices finally stood still on Tuesday after an initial upward reaction following the slowdown in American inflation which weighed down the dollar.
A barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in January lost 0.06% to 82.47 dollars.
Its American equivalent, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery in December, remained at $78.26.
For Phil Flynn of Price Futures Group, “despite the fact that all the energy agencies are telling us that demand for oil is strong, there is a bit of skepticism.”
OPEC’s monthly report, released Monday, forecast that global demand is expected to increase by 2.5 million barrels per day this year.
“OPEC remains faithful to its optimistic demand forecasts and envisages a significantly undersupplied oil market,” summarized Tamas Varga of PVM Energy.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has also decided to revise “slightly” upwards for 2023 its forecast for growth in oil demand, driven by the needs of petrochemicals in China, in its monthly report published on Tuesday .
Prices, which climbed more than 1.25% during the day, also lost their lead when American President Joe Biden said he believed in an agreement on the release of hostages held by Hamas.
“I talk to the people involved every day. I believe that an agreement will be reached, but I do not want to go into details,” said the American president, answering questions from the press at the White House.
“This takes away a little of the war premium” on oil prices, judged Phil Flynn.
The prices of the two benchmarks had benefited in the middle of the session “from lower-than-expected American inflation and a weakened dollar”, indicated DNB analysts.
The inflation rate actually fell in October in the United States, to 3.2% over one year, compared to 3.7% in September, thanks in particular to the drop in gasoline prices at the pump, according to the CPI index published by the Department of Labor.
However, low inflation signals to the markets a possible end to the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) rate hike cycle, which depreciates the American currency. This in turn temporarily favored purchases of oil, which is traded in dollars.