Crude-oil futures markets are volatile, with intra-day ranges in price surging in recent days
This points to uncertainty about the market's direction. In London on Friday, the front-month Brent contract traded down to around $76.50, a loss of more than $1/b, before recovering towards $77/b in the afternoon.
Weakness followed news form the US' Federal Reserve that it was raising its discount rate from 0.5% to 0.75%. In some quarters, that suggested the Fed is growing concerned about inflation.
However, other analysts said that the effect of the rate-rise would be short-lived. First, the rise did not affect the crucial federal-funds rate used by the market to judge the Fed's longer-term intentions. Second, the strengthening of the dollar that followed the Fed's announcement on Thursday has only helped the currency recover some of the losses it has suffered in recent weeks.
