Oil prices fell yesterday Friday, cooled by a strong dollar and weakening activity in the Eurozone, after strong gains during the week as investors monitor geopolitical risk in the Middle East.
The price of a barrel of Brent from the North Sea, for delivery in August, fell 0.54% to 85.24 dollars.
Its American equivalent, the barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), for delivery the same month, which is the first day of use as a reference contract, lost 0.68% to 80.73 dollars.
In the euro zone, the Flash PMI index published yesterday Friday by S&P Global showed a slowdown in manufacturing activity which, however, remains in very slight growth at 50.8, compared to 52.2 in May.
This data strengthened the dollar against the euro. The greenback gained 0.07% around 7:15 p.m. GMT to 1.0695 dollars per euro.
The dollar index, which compares the greenback against a basket of currencies, climbed 0.18%.
When the dollar strengthens, this increases the cost of oil which is exchanged in dollars and therefore this tends to put pressure on the price of a barrel.
It should be noted that overall demand for black gold received a positive boost with the publication, the day before, by the American Energy Information Agency (EIA) of a contraction in commercial crude oil stocks of 2.5 million barrels last week in the United States.
