Oil prices dipped in the Asian trade today ahead of a meeting between the German and French leaders on how to deal with the eurozone’s widening debt crisis.
New York’s main contract, West Texas Intermediate crude for delivery in September, fell 45 cents to $87.43 a barrel in the morning trade. Brent North Sea crude for September was down 42 cents at $109.49.
“Investors will be waiting for details on the eurozone meeting and the eurozone second quarter GDP figures,” said Mr Ker Chung Yang, an analyst at Phillip Futures in Singapore.
The French President, Mr Nicolas Sarkozy, will host the German Chancellor, Mr Angela Merkel, in Paris to produce a roadmap for the 17-nation eurozone as it battles its growing sovereign debt crisis.
Ms Merkel and Mr Sarkozy lead the eurozone’s two biggest economies and markets have been watching anxiously to see whether they will agree a plan to boost fragile confidence.
Finance ministers of Britain, Australia, Canada, Singapore and South Africa had yesterday said in a statement that the world was facing a crisis of confidence and needed a global response.
The ministers warned of a lack of confidence in efforts by governments to address the issues underpinning weak growth, high unemployment and unsustainable fiscal balance sheets.
Trillions of dollars have been wiped off the stock markets in a massive sell-off over the past fortnight as investors dumped shares over concerns of a global slowdown, eurozone debt and an unprecedented US credit rating downgrade.
Fears of global economic slowdown have in turn triggered volatility in oil prices, as traders anticipate a deterioration in energy demand.