(MENAFN- Khaleej Times)Crude futures rose right after the Opec decision on a relief rally after the losses of the past two days.
New York — Oil moved lower in volatile trade on Friday with Brent briefly hitting seven-week lows before paring losses as a surging dollar and an Opec decision not to cut output in an oversupplied market sent crude prices on a roller-coaster ride.
Crude’s biggest producers and shippers in the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) group agreed at a meeting in Vienna to stick to a policy of unconstrained output for another six months. The decision basically ignored warnings of a second lurch lower in prices with members such as Iran looking to ramp up exports.
Crude futures rose right after the Opec decision on a relief rally after the losses of the past two days. The dollar’s surge on a stronger-than-expected US jobs report for May doused the enthusiasm however.
After falling more than a dollar a barrel Brent and US crude futures bounced back to positive territory before heading lower again.
At 10:31am EDT (1431 GMT) Brent was down 10 cents at $61.93 a barrel after tumbling to an April 16 low of $60.94 a barrel.
US crude was down five cents at $57.95 a barrel versus a session low of $56.83.
“The dollar and the Opec decision are both pulling the market opposite ways” said Phil Flynn analyst at the Price Futures Group in Chicago.
“The jobs report just blew away expectations and set the dollar on an unexpected run that tore into oil’s gains. But at the same time bulls were already hedged for the Opec decision not to cut output and ready for a relief rally after the losses of the past two days.”
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