The oil prices fell during Friday’s deals and the decrease was observed for the fifth day in a row. It has conditioned the most considerable weekly drop since the beginning of May. The reason of this decline was that disappointing economic reports continued to show problems in the economy recovery.
According to the trading results at NY commodity exchange, August light sweet crude oil futures edged down by 81 cents, or by 1.1%, to $72.14/barrel.
Brent August futures decreased by 69 cents, or by 1%, to $71.65/barrel.
Pessimism increase regarding economy and worries about possible refreshment of recession exerted pressure on oil process during the whole week and two US economic reports released on Friday did not improve the overall picture.
The oil prices fall of 8% on the previous week preceded the 4th of July celebration in the USA. In this period strong demand on gasoline is usually observed because of the peak of summer auto season, as the Americans go to trips. The forecasts suggested more active use of vehicles and fuel in last weekend did not managed to level off the pressure exerted by negative economic news.
The US gasoline inventories overcomes the normal level for this year. The gasoline usage is tightly related to employment. The high unemployment means that people use cars for going to the work or vacations less than before.
Although the US non-farm payrolls almost matched the expectations in June, private companies’ employment does not satisfy the predictions for the second sequential month.