Oil futures edged lower in holiday-thinned trading on Friday, as the market awaited an OPEC+ meeting later this week and the likelihood that member nations would decide to raise output. Brent crude was down 50 cents, or 0.7%, at $68.30 a barrel while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was down 50 cents, or 0.75%, at $66.50 shortly before 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT). Trading was thin due to the U.S. Independence Day holiday. Brent crude was up about 0.8% from Friday's close and WTI crude was up about 1.5%. The eight-nation OPEC+ group is likely to raise oil output again for August at its meeting...
World oil prices fell again after OPEC+ announced a larger-than-expected increase in production starting next month. The group of oil producing countries led by Saudi Arabia agreed to increase supply by 548,000 barrels per day, which immediately sparked concerns about oversupply in the global market. This caused Brent oil prices to fall by 1.6% to $67 per barrel. The decision was announced on Saturday, as part of OPEC+'s strategy to adjust production to summer demand. This increase in production is much higher than market expectations, which previously estimated an additional 411,000...
Gold edges lower in the early Asian session on possible position adjustments, but losses may be limited by concerns over U.S. policies. With this Wednesday's deadline for the 90-day pause on so-called reciprocal tariffs looming, President Trump said Sunday that a dozen or more letters could go out this week. Meanwhile, Trump signed his "one big, beautiful bill" into law in a July 4th ceremony. A key factor supporting gold is the damaging U.S. policy, which is eroding investors' confidence in safe U.S. assets, says Commerzbank Research's head of FX and Commodity Research Thu Lan Nguyen in a...