Oil climbs to fresh 6-week high on bullish demand | Reuters

Oil climbs to fresh 6-week high on bullish demand | Reuters

Oil prices rose to fresh six-week highs on Thursday as strong U.S. economic data, a weak dollar and an expected recovery in demand outweighed concerns about higher COVID-19 cases in Brazil and India.

Brent LCOc1 futures rose $1.29, or 1.9%, to settle at $68.56 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose $1.15, or 1.8%, to end at $65.01.

That put both benchmarks up for a third day in a row to their highest closes since March 15.

“Summer season is a synonym for driving season and drivers in the United States, China and the United Kingdom are about to start consuming more fuel, a development the market believes will make up for India’s COVID-19 downturn,” said Bjornar Tonhaugen, head of oil markets at Rystad Energy.

He added that oil prices drew additional support from a weak dollar, which made “oil cheaper to buy internationally.”