Following the US Federal Reserve’s decision yesterday to steady interest rates for the seventh time since the monetary tightening cycle began, oil prices increased in trade on Thursday.
Brent crude futures increased by 0.36% to $80.84 per barrel by 08:20 Moscow time, while global crude futures finished yesterday at $80.55 per barrel after falling by 2.4%.
Wednesday saw a 2.5% drop in US crude futures to $75.85 per barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate crude futures increased by 0.4% to $76.15 per barrel.
Because of the tensions in the Red Sea region, oil prices increased in January of last year for the first time in four months. American and Brent crude saw increases of 5.9% and 6.1%, respectively, last month.
With unanimous consent, the Federal Reserve Board declared yesterday, Wednesday, that interest rates will stay at a range of 5.25% to 5.5%. This is the sixth consecutive stabilization decision since July 2023.
In a statement, the Fed stated that new data shows the economy is growing quickly, that job growth has slowed somewhat since the beginning of the year but is still substantial, and that the unemployment rate is very low.
