USO climbs 1.47% to $159.62 as crude pushes toward the $100 mark
The move follows Thursday's 3.03% jump to $97.97 a barrel, as Middle East supply worries and a Russian refinery outage keep prices elevated
Published
Chart: USO, a fund that tracks crude, one-minute prices, three sessions
US crude futures are up more than $2 on Friday, building on Thursday's gain and pushing the price toward the $100 a barrel level. Crude settled Thursday at $97.97, up 3.03%, or $2.88 on the day.
The filing attributes the rise to persistent Middle East supply concerns and a Russian refinery outage. Russia's Ryazan refinery has had one of its primary units halted since an October 15 drone attack, according to two sources. Energy Minister Alexander Novak has said drones hit both the Saratov and Ryazan refineries.
A Ukrainian official has said an overnight strike on a Russian refinery came in response to missile and drone attacks that broke the energy truce pushed by Washington. The Financial Times has reported that Russia is suspected of striking two tankers in NATO waters, and separately that the US is considering unfreezing Russian assets to revive Ukraine talks amid fresh drone strikes on Russian refineries.
Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries have repeatedly outpaced Washington's diesel-for-restraint diplomacy, while Moscow continues to describe any US ceasefire framework as unresolved. A sustained climb toward $100 would mark a shift from rhetoric-driven swings to a market pricing in real barrels lost, a shift that matters for equities broadly given what sustained higher energy costs would mean for inflation and consumer spending.