Investing.com – Crude oil futures extended losses on Thursday, plunging to a four-month low after the International Energy Agency announced that it would release additional oil supplies from emergency stocks for only the third time in its history.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in August traded at USD90.42 a barrel during U.S. morning trade, plunging 4.35%.
It earlier fell as much as 4.5% to hit USD90.25 a barrel, the lowest price since February 21.
The IEA said it planned to release 60 million barrels of oil in response to loss of supplies from Libya, with the U.S. Department of Energy contributing 30 million barrels to the cause.
The Paris-based group said that two million barrels of oil would be released per day over the next 30 days, starting from “around the end of next week”.
IEA executive director Nobuo Tanaka said that the market situation was getting “tighter and tighter”, adding that the organization would continue to watch for further developments in the market.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, rallied 1.05% to trade at 76.07, after earlier rising to a one-week high of 76.15.
Dollar-denominated oil futures contracts tend to fall when the dollar gains, as this makes oil more expensive for buyers in other currencies.
The U.S. Department of Labor said earlier that the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending June 18 rose by 9K to a seasonally adjusted 429K, confounding expectations for a decline to 410K.
The downbeat data exacerbated fears over U.S. growth prospects after the Federal Reserve downgraded its 2011 U.S. economic growth forecast to a range of 2.7% to 2.9%, down from a previous estimate of 3.1% to 3.3% on Wednesday.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke confirmed that the bank was winding up its USD600 billion bond-buying program at the end of June and said further easing was unlikely.
Elsewhere, on the ICE Futures Exchange, Brent oil futures for August delivery plummeted 6.6% to trade at USD105.95 a barrel, up USD15.53 on its U.S. counterpart.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in August traded at USD90.42 a barrel during U.S. morning trade, plunging 4.35%.
It earlier fell as much as 4.5% to hit USD90.25 a barrel, the lowest price since February 21.
The IEA said it planned to release 60 million barrels of oil in response to loss of supplies from Libya, with the U.S. Department of Energy contributing 30 million barrels to the cause.
The Paris-based group said that two million barrels of oil would be released per day over the next 30 days, starting from “around the end of next week”.
IEA executive director Nobuo Tanaka said that the market situation was getting “tighter and tighter”, adding that the organization would continue to watch for further developments in the market.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, rallied 1.05% to trade at 76.07, after earlier rising to a one-week high of 76.15.
Dollar-denominated oil futures contracts tend to fall when the dollar gains, as this makes oil more expensive for buyers in other currencies.
The U.S. Department of Labor said earlier that the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending June 18 rose by 9K to a seasonally adjusted 429K, confounding expectations for a decline to 410K.
The downbeat data exacerbated fears over U.S. growth prospects after the Federal Reserve downgraded its 2011 U.S. economic growth forecast to a range of 2.7% to 2.9%, down from a previous estimate of 3.1% to 3.3% on Wednesday.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke confirmed that the bank was winding up its USD600 billion bond-buying program at the end of June and said further easing was unlikely.
Elsewhere, on the ICE Futures Exchange, Brent oil futures for August delivery plummeted 6.6% to trade at USD105.95 a barrel, up USD15.53 on its U.S. counterpart.