WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Crude oil prices extended the previous day's gains on Thursday, as data points to robust demand in the US amid prevailing uncertainty about a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.
WTI Crude Oil for October delivery was last seen trading up by $0.88 (or 1.40%) at $63.59 per barrel.
According to the data released by the US EIA crude oil inventories tumbled by 6.0 million barrels last week and gasoline inventories fell by 2.7 million barrels. These numbers suggest an increase in demand.
Amid US a 'sanctions threat' on Russian oil exports, Russian President met US President Donald Trump last Friday to negotiate an end to the three-plus-year war with Ukraine.
This past Monday, Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Despite the odds of a peace deal rising, neither meeting culminated in a significant breakthrough.
Notably, even as Trump is spearheading diplomatic measures to halt the war, in an overnight attack on Thursday, Russia launched a total of 574 drone and 40 missile strikes on Ukraine.
If the efforts taken by the White House to end the long-drawn hostilities between Russia and Ukraine materializes positively, it will weigh against crude oil prices.
But with the Western sanctions on Russian oil exports remaining intact, the uncertainty of a ceasefire supports oil prices for now.
With economists warning that the US economy may go into stagflation, and global markets shaken heavily by US tariffs, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's keynote address at the Jackson Hole Symposium in Wyoming tomorrow may shed some light on the outlook for monetary policy.
Crude oil being a dollar-denominated commodity, its trajectory is expected to be impacted intensely by the US Dollar value in the coming days.
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