Oil prices hover around $80 in Friday Asia trading

Oil prices are currently trading around the $80 mark in Asia on Friday as oil traders fretted over the weak fundamentals of the market, analysts said.

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for December delivery, was up 33 cents to $79.95 a barrel on the NYMEX while Brent North Sea crude oil futures for December delivery gained 41 cents to $78.40 on the ICE Futures Exchange.

Analysts said data from the US Department of Energy released late Wednesday showing a 4 million barrel drop in US stockpiles for the week ending October 30 was not enough to buoy the market.

“Once again, the demand side of the EIA numbers was extremely weak,” said Edward Meir, a senior commodity analyst with MF Global. Oil prices were range bound between $77 and $81 throughout the week as traders were “looking for a breakout but economic data is still mixed,” said Jason Schenker of Prestige Economics.

On Thursday, the Bank of England and the European Central Bank held their key lending rates at record-low levels, matching the US Federal Reserve’s historic low key federal funds rate of 0% to 0.25%.

“The Fed is not pointing at any strong demand recovery and the US oil statistics are saying the same thing,” said Petromatrix oil market analyst Olivier Jakob.

Tags:  oil prices