On Thursday, oil prices widened their discounts from the previous day. A barrel of the North Sea variety Brent was temporarily 1.7 percent cheaper to $ 73.19. The price for the US variety WTI fell by up to 2.2 percent to $ 71.13. Oil prices had already come under considerable pressure on Wednesday. The weekly warehouse data from the USA created a burden. The gasoline and distillate stocks have therefore increased significantly in the past few weeks. The oil stocks fell, but this was only noticed on the oil market. Reports that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are on the verge of reaching an agreement in the dispute over production volumes also continued to weigh on them. According to the media, the UAE was able to get advantageous terms for itself. The country is arguing with Saudi Arabia because it wants to produce more crude oil than it is entitled to according to agreements with the Opec + oil group.
Slightly disappointing economic data from China could not stop the rise in the copper price. The industrial metal rose 1.3 percent to $ 9,459 per ton. According to stockbrokers, investors were hoping for an easing of Chinese monetary policy after economic growth there, at 7.9 percent year-on-year, lagged behind market expectations of 8.1 percent.
The impending lifting of the pandemic restrictions in England made sterling investors nervous. The rate of the British currency found no clear direction and fluctuated in a range between 1.1672 and 1.1749 euros. Although the number of cases is rising again due to the contagious delta variant of the corona virus, almost all existing restrictions will be removed on Monday. Although two thirds of all Britons are now fully vaccinated, scientists are still warning of a new wave of infections.