Investing.com — Oil prices rose sharply on Friday, paring some of the week’s losses, following reports that Iran was planning a retaliatory attack on Israel in the coming days.
At 08:25 ET (1225 GMT), futures were trading 2.6% higher at $71.06 per barrel and the contract rose 2.4% to $74.59 per barrel.
Iran will attack Israel?
Iran is preparing to attack Israel from Iraqi territory in the coming days, Axios reported late Thursday, citing Israeli intelligence, in response to Israel’s attack on Iran on October 26.
The possibility that the conflict in the Middle East could spread, hitting crude oil supplies from this oil-rich region, added a risk premium to the crude oil market.
Both contracts are still set to fall about 2% this week after falling more than 6% on Monday after Israel’s muted attacks this weekend lowered expectations of a wider conflict in the Middle East.
The two countries are involved in a series of tit-for-tat attacks within the broader Middle East warfare sparked by the fighting in Gaza.
Chinese manufacturing activity is growing
The crude oil market also got a boost from news earlier Friday that Chinese manufacturing activity returned to growth in October, a private sector survey showed.
The index rose to 50.3 in October from 49.3 the month before, beating the forecast of 49.7.
The outcome was largely in line with Thursday’s official survey, which showed manufacturing activity grew for the first time since April, helped by a series of stimulus measures announced in late September as Beijing sought to stimulate economic growth in the world’s second-largest economy. and the largest importer of crude oil. .
OPEC+ will postpone the supply increase?
Oil prices were also supported by expectations that OPEC+ could delay its planned oil production increase in December amid concerns about weak oil demand and rising supply.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries plus Russia and other allies, a group known as OPEC+, will increase production by 180,000 barrels per day in December. The country had already postponed the increase from October due to falling prices.
