HOUSTON- Oil prices settled down more than 2 percent on Friday as investors fretted about weaker Chinese demand and a potential slowing in the pace of US Federal Reserve interest rate cuts.
Brent crude futures settled down $1.52, or 2.09 percent, to $71.04 a barrel. US West Texas Intermediate crude futures (WTI) settled down $1.68, or 2.45 percent, at $67.02.
For the week, Brent fell around 4 percent, while WTI declined around 5 percent.
China’s oil refiners in October processed 4.6 percent less crude than a year earlier because of plant closures and reduced operating rates at smaller independent refiners, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Friday.
The country’s factory output growth slowed last month and demand woes in its property sector showed few signs of abating, adding to investors’ concerns over the economic health of the world’s largest crude importer.
“The headwinds out of China are persisting, and whatever stimulus they put forward could be damaged by a new round of tariffs by the Trump administration,” said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital in New York.
US President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to end China’s most-favored-nation trading status and impose tariffs on Chinese imports in excess of 60 percent – much higher than those imposed during his first term. Goldman Sachs Research economists have modestly lowered their 2025 growth forecast for China, the bank said in a note, following on expectations of significant tariff increases under Trump.
