Saudi Arabia world’s largest oil producer

“Low volume holiday trade, largely off on strong dollar and hard sell-off in Chinese equity markets”, Jim Ritterbusch of Chicago-based oil consultancy Ritterbusch & Associates said in a commentary on oil. The Wall Street Journal Dollar Index, which tracks the dollar against a basket of other currencies, rose 0.24% on Friday.

Crude oil prices fell on Thursday after steadying on Wednesday as fears of supply disruptions caused by escalating violence in the Middle East faded and persistent market glut and increased global output weighed on market.

West Texas Intermediate for January delivery dropped $1.08, or 2.5 percent, to $41.96 a barrel at 11:45 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Energy Department said crude stockpiles ticked up by 1 million barrels last week, bringing the total tally to 488.2 million barrels, around a level not seen in the last eight decades. For the same period, analysts had estimated an increase of 1.1 million barrels in crude inventories. While the general public expects the cartel to stick to its policy of making 30 million barrels of oil a day, any definite statement can not be made right now. Thus far, market observers say that the group is determined to keep pumping oil vigorously despite the resulting financial strain.

The 12-nation OPEC, which counts the world’s biggest oil producer, Saudi Arabia, among its members, as well as Nigeria, Venezuela and Iran, holds a regular meeting in Vienna on Friday next week. Australian shares dipped 0.1 percent .AXJO while Japan’s Nikkei .N225 shed 0.4 percent.

Profits earned by Chinese industrial companies fell 4.6 per cent in October from a year earlier, data from the country’s statistics bureau showed on Friday, declining for the fifth consecutive month.

European stocks moved higher and oil prices reversed course and fell 1 percent on Wednesday as investors’ concerns eased over the potential fallout of Turkey’s shooting down of a Russian fighter jet.

Global oil production is outpacing demand following a boom in USA shale oil production and after a decision by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries past year not to cut production.

Both crude contracts were on track for small weekly gains, but were down by roughly 9 per cent since the start of November.

Nickel gained 3.1 per cent to $US9,190.

The United States and France separately agreed on Tuesday to ramp up military operations against IS in Syria and Iraq and coordinate intelligence on domestic threats following the worst attacks to hit France since World War Two.