Oil prices retreat from 3-1/2-year peak

NEW YORK: US and European equity markets essentially treaded water on Friday while oil prices retreated, concluding a turbulent week marked by President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the US from the Iran nuclear pact. The US president’s Iran announcement on Tuesday triggered a surge in oil prices to levels unseen in over three years.

But oil prices pulled back Friday, with some analysts pointing to profit-taking and others seeing the move as motivated by the belief that other major OPEC producers could boost output as needed. Traders meanwhile welcomed below-forecast US inflation data on Thursday that dented expectations for a sharp rise in US interest rates, which buoyed the prospect of continued cheap borrowing.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 13^th, 2018.

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