WSJ Interview

US benchmark oil prices end higher for a fourth straight session, closing up 1.8% at an eight-month-high $45.71a barrel following a weekly decline in US crude-oil inventories, further signs of a rising US demand and hopes OPEC will maintain output cuts a few months longer despite oil’s rally. “The price of oil is continuing to firm up on several possibilities, one being OPEC taking action next month by extending production cuts and although a long shot, new production cuts,” Spartan Capital’s Peter Cardillo tells WSJ. “These possibilities along with vaccine hope is now setting the stage for a technical breakout that would send prices above $50 in the intermediate time frame.”