Investing.com -- Oil markets fell 1% on Thursday, dialing back a little of the week’s rally, as the dollar maintained its upward charge on expectations that a higher U.S. debt ceiling deal will be achieved soon.
New York-traded West Texas Intermediate, or WTI, crude settled down 97 cents, or 1.3%, at $71.86 per barrel after the previous session’s drop of 3.2%. Week-to-date though, the U.S. crude benchmark remained up 2.6%.
London-traded Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, settled down $1.10, or 1.4%, at $75.86. On Wednesday, Brent rose 3%. For the week, the global crude benchmark was up 2.3%.
“Good news for the economy is now bad news for the crude demand outlook as economic resilience will force the Fed to kill the economy,” said Ed Moya, analyst at online trading platform OANDA. “Oil is becoming an easy trade, as it will track the dollar and not so much anything else.”
The Dollar Index hit a seven-week peak of 103.485 on Thursday amid optimism over a U.S. debt ceiling agreement being struck to avert a potential default before June 1.