Prices of oil rise on feeble U.S. dollar and declining U.S. crude stockpiles

Thursday, buoyed by the ongoing declines in the United States crude inventories for the past 10 weeks and by a weak U.S. dollar, prices of oil ascended and settled at their highest level since December 2014. According to a report released by the EIA, United States crude inventories slipped by 1.1 million barrels to approximately 411.58 in the week ending on January 19

United States West Texas Intermediate crude futures traded at $66.32 a barrel, 1% higher from their previous close. The international benchmark, Brent crude futures, settled at $70.98 per barrel after climbing by 0.6% or 45 cents. Both Brent and WTI soared by approximately 60% since mid-2017.

U.S. dollar collapsed to a massive three-year low against its major currency rivals

The dollar lost strength after United States Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, mentioned on Wednesday that a weak dollar was good for the United States. The dollar index settled at 89.064 -  the greenback’s weakest since December 2014.

Against the euro, the U.S. dollar traded at $1.2425 which was 0.15% lower than the currency’s previous close. Against the Japanese safe-haven yen, the greenback went lower by 0.1% closing at 109.105 yen JPY.

In the digital currency market , Bitcoin stayed below the 12 000-threshold even though it was able to rise by more than 3% to $11 222.71 per coin.