NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – Concerns about a recession with subdued oil demand weighed heavily on the oil industry on Friday. In Europe, it caught stocks such as Shell (Shell (ex Royal Dutch Shell)) with losses of a little more than five percent and in the USA the losses were similarly pronounced: Chevron shares, the biggest Dow loser, lost almost six percent. In the broader market, ConocoPhillips was particularly negative, falling 8.2 percent. ExxonMobil was also a big loser, down 5.1 percent.
Oil prices fell sharply on Friday after several central banks raised their key interest rates significantly in the course of the week in the fight against high inflation. A barrel of North Sea Brent recently cost $85.59. That was almost five dollars less than the day before. The price of a barrel of the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) variety fell by a similar amount to $78.25. This means that the WTI price is below USD 80 for the first time since January.
“Fear of a hard landing for the US economy and the global economy as a whole is spreading among investors,” said a market observer. Higher interest rates are a heavy blow, especially for shares. Other investment opportunities are becoming more attractive: The yield on US government bonds with a term of ten years then reached a twelve-year high. If the economy continues to lose momentum, demand for crude oil could also fall, is the particular fear of oil industry investors.
However, oil stocks are also falling at comfortable levels, having benefited lavishly over the past few months as oil prices rose during the war in Ukraine. Chevron are still up more than 24 percent for the year after the setback, making them the top performer in the Dow Jones Industrial (Dow Jones 30 Industrial). The leading US index has lost almost 19 percent in value so far./tih/jha/
Leverage must be between 2 and 20
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