WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Oil futures settled roughly flat on Friday, continuing to struggle for support, weighed down to a large extent by U.S. President Donald Trump's call for lower crude prices.
The dollar's weakness supported oil prices a bit. The dollar dropped more than 0.6% as Trump called for lower interest rates.
After signing an executive order calling for increased U.S. oil production soon after taking chage as U.S. President on Monday, Trump called on Saudi Araba and Opec nations to lower oil prices, while speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday.
In his speech at the Forum, Trump said he would ask Saudi Arabia and other Opec nations to 'bring down the cost of oil.'
West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March came of a high of $75.21 and settled at $74.66 a barrel, up $0.04 from previous close, just about managing to snap a six-day losing streak.
WTI crude futures shed more than 3% in the week.
Brent crude futures gained $0.26 or 0.34% to $78.55 a barrel.
Data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said crude oil inventories in the U.S. dipped by 1.0 million barrels in the week ended January 17th, after falling by 2.0 million barrels in the previous week. Economists had expected crude oil inventories to decline by 2.1 million barrels.
The report said distillate fuel inventories, which include heating oil and diesel, also decreased by 3.1 million barrels last week.
Meanwhile, the EIA said gasoline inventories increased by 2.3 million barrels last week.
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