Brent for November settlement slipped
"You have the strengthening dollar. And this has been a big part of how it's been trading recently." Brent for November settlement slipped $1.90, or 2 per cent, to $91.52 a barrel at 11:30 am New York time on the London- based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The volume of all futures traded was about 27 percent above the 100-day average. Prices have decreased 5.6 per cent this week.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for November delivery fell $1.59, or 1.8 per cent, to $89.42 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It traded below $90 on Thursday for the first time since April 2013. Prices have slipped 4.4 per cent this week. The US benchmark earlier fell to a discount of as little as $1.51 to Brent on ICE, the smallest gap since August 2013, before widening out.
Gasoline drops
Gasoline futures dropped as much as 2.4 per cent to $2.3511, the least since January 2011. A lower price for Brent can cut US gasoline prices by reducing the cost of crude and fuel imports to the US East Coast.
"I am looking for WTI to establish a floor possibly as low as $85, which could possibly take Brent to $88," said Tom Finlon, Jupiter, Florida-based director of Energy Analytics Group LLC. "The Brent-WTI spread would probably end up staying at $2 or $3. US production is going to continue to increase." The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index increased as far as 1,080.05. A stronger dollar reduced crude's investment appeal.
