Oil prices experienced a small decline on Thursday, breaking the longest consecutive daily gains since January 2019. Concerns about demand appear to be the cause of this slight drop, stemming from recent production limit pledges made by Russia and Saudi Arabia to reduce supply. Additionally, data from China, the world’s second-largest economy, has further raised worries about growth.
The U.S. benchmark, West Texas Intermediate, was down 0.5% at $87.11. It had recently experienced a nine-day winning streak, the longest in years, resulting in its highest closing price since November. Since the beginning of the year, WTI prices have increased by 8.2%.
Similarly, Brent crude, the international standard, was trading 0.4% lower at $90.25 early Thursday. This followed its longest daily winning streak since May 2022 and it’s currently up 5% since the start of the year.
Amidst these developments, analysts at UBS have predicted that oil prices could rise an additional 6% by the end of the year.
Notably, recent figures from China showed that exports had dropped by 8.8% in August compared to the previous year, while imports fell by 7.3%. However, imports of oil surged by 31%.
