New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for October delivery, gained 24 cents to USD 71.87.
The contract closed Tuesday at USD 71.63, its lowest since 7th June. Brent North Sea crude for October was 23 cents higher at USD 72.61 a barrel.
It closed Tuesday USD 1.24 lower at USD 72.38. “I think sentiment is still bearish,” said Ong Yi Ling, an investment analyst with Singapore-based financial services firm Phillip Futures.
“We are looking at economic worries, it will continue to influence prices,” she told.
Financial markets were jolted Tuesday by data showing that existing US home sales plunged a whopping 27.2 per cent in July to levels unseen in more than a decade, increasing concern about a double-dip recession.
The US is a major energy consuming nation and worries are resurfacing that crude demand will be affected if the world’s biggest economy veers off the recovery track.
“Overall, it is becoming abundantly clear that the housing market is undermining the already faltering wider economic recovery,” said Paul Dales, an economist with Capital Economics research consultancy.
“With the increasingly inevitable double-dip in prices yet to come, things could yet get a lot worse,” he said in a market commentary.