New York. The price of Petroleum Texas Intermediate (WTI) opened this Friday with a rise of 0.58%, to 103.33 dollars a barrel, after soaring 4.3% yesterday, amid great volatility marked by bearish fears of a recession and bulls of weak demand.
At 0900 New York local time (1300 GMT), WTI futures contracts for delivery in August added $0.60 from the close of the previous session.
The benchmark oil USA is heading to close this four-day week for the July 4 holiday, with losses, after last Friday it finished at 108.43 dollars a barrel.
On Tuesday it suffered a deep drop of 8.2% that plunged the price below the psychological barrier of 100.
Read more: Texas oil opens 0.20% higher to $103 a barrel
The Energy Information Management (EIA, for its acronym in English) reported yesterday that crude oil inventories increased last week by 8.2 million barrels, while those of gasoline were reduced by 2.5 million, both due to increased demand and due to the 0.5% drop in refinery activity.
The drop in gasoline inventories encouraged investors yesterday, after they had risen in the previous two weeks, sparking fears of a loss in demand.
“The drop in US gasoline inventories…highlighted how tight supplies remain, especially in the refined categories,” Oanda analyst Jeffrey Halley wrote in a note, referring to how this data yesterday helped keep the price of crude oil rising.
