Crude oil futures traded lower on Friday morning as an official from the US Federal Reserve ruled out interest rate cuts in the near future.
At 9.52 am on Friday, April Brent oil futures were at $83.28, down by 0.47 per cent, and April crude oil futures on WTI (West Texas Intermediate) were at $78.21, down by 0.51 per cent.
March crude oil futures were trading at ₹6,487 on Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) during initial trading against the previous close of ₹6,535, down by 0.73 per cent, and April futures were trading at ₹6474 as against the previous close of ₹6,515, down by 0.63 per cent.
FOMC highlights
On Thursday, Christopher Waller, US Fed Governor, said the inflation is still likely on track to reach the Fed’s target of 2 per cent. A Reuters report said he said this in Minneapolis.
“I am going to need to see at least another couple more months of inflation data before I can judge whether January was a speed bump or a pothole,” he said.
Even the minutes of the meeting of Fed, which was released on Wednesday, had highlighted the fact that policymakers were worried about reducing interest rates too soon. A high interest rate for longer period of time impacts the economic growth. This will impact the demand for commodities such as crude oil.
Data released by the US EIA (Energy Information Administration) showed that the US commercial crude oil inventories increased by 3.5 million barrels for the week ending February 16. At 443 million barrels, US crude oil inventories were about 2 per cent below the five-year average for this time of year.
Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 0.3 million barrels from last week and were about 2 per cent below the five-year average for this time of year.
Total products supplied in the US over the last four-week period averaged 19.6 million barrels a day, down by 2 per cent from the same period last year. Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.3 million barrels a day, down by 2.3 per cent from the same period last year.
March natural gas futures were trading at ₹150.10 on MCX against the previous close of ₹149.20, up by 0.60 per cent.
On the National Commodities and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX), April jeera contracts were trading at ₹25,640 against the previous close of ₹25,400, up by 0.94 per cent.
April kapas futures were trading at ₹1,570 on NCDEX against the previous close of ₹1,563, up by 0.42 per cent.