Oil prices drop as demand worries mount
04 Nov 2022 10:43am
Image for illustrative purposes only - BERNAMA
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The West Texas Intermediate for December delivery lost US$1.83, or 2 per cent, to settle at US$88.17 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for January delivery dropped US$1.49, or nearly 1.6 per cent, to settle at US$94.67 a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
The US central bank on Wednesday raised its benchmark rates by 75 basis points for the fourth consecutive meeting, given that inflation is still running at multi-decade highs. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said it was "very premature" to think about pausing rate hikes.
Traders grew fearful that the Fed's aggressive rate-hiking campaign will tip the economy into a recession, hurting demand for energy.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, surged 1.4 per cent to 112.9260 in late trading on Thursday, driven by the Fed's hawkish stance. The price of oil is normally inversely related to the price of the US dollar. - BERNAMA
