Oil Up, Investors Expect More Interest Rate Hikes from the Fed

By Zhang Mengying

Investing.com – Oil was up on Thursday morning in Asia. Investors doubled down on the possibility of a rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve after U.S. inflation data hit a four-decade high, which might curb oil demand.

Brent oil futures rose 0.68% to $100.24 by 12:00 AM ET (4:00 AM GMT) and crude oil WTI futures jumped 0.56% to $96.84.

U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose to 9.1% in June year-on-year, a four-decade high. Markets expected a historic one percentage-point Fed interest-rate hike later this month.

Markets expected a historic one percentage-point Fed interest-rate hike later this month.

The Bank of Canada on Wednesday took a surprising move and raised its main interest rate by 100 basis points in a bid to crush inflation, becoming the first G7 country to make such an aggressive hike in this economic cycle.

The European Commission predicted record levels of inflation and slashed its GDP forecast for 2022 and 2023 due to war in Ukraine, crimped demand out of surging prices, and the danger of winter energy shortages, according to Bloomberg citing a draft of the projections.

On the demand side, investors are worried about COVID-19 curbs in multiple Chinese cities to rein in the outbreak of a highly infectious subvariant that has kept oil gains in check.

Wednesday’s data showed that China’s daily crude oil imports in June dropped to their lowest since July 2018.

Elsewhere, U.S. President Joe Biden will visit Saudi Arabia, where he will call for Gulf allies to add more oil production. However, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is running low on their spare capacity.

Wednesday’s U.S. crude supply data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed a build of 3.254 million barrels for the week ended July 8.

Crude supply data from the American Petroleum Institute released the day before, showed a build of 4.762 million barrels.