Brent oil price closes week up 6 percent near $84 mark

2 October 2010 2 October 2010

BonTrade

Brent oil prices close the week’s trading session up around 6 percent near $84 as the US dollar helps push crude futures higher.

In London, Brent crude oil futures for November 2010 delivery closed the week’s session at $83.78, which is around 6 percent higher than last week’s closing price of $78.87 a barrel.

Weaker US Dollar Helps Lift Oil Futures

The US dollar continued to loose ground against most other major currencies, helping commodities including oil and gold to trade higher. The ICE Dollar Index, a measure of the US dollar against a basket of six major currencies, fell to 78.070, down from 78.779. The US dollar has lost at least 1.7 percent in currency market trading this week alone.

As long as a further round of money printing from the US Fed is on the table, then many investors are not going to want to hold US dollars and instead may want to buy into safer bets.

The ICE Dollar Index has fallen a big 5.3 percent in September 2010 and declined at least 8.4 percent over the course of the third quarter of 2010, its biggest three month drop since the second quarter of 2002.