Oil prices made advances after plunging by the biggest percentage decline in two years. WTI crude future gained by 0.44 percent to last settle in at USD $ 100.24 per barrel. Brent crude future closed the market at USD $ 111.90 per barrel, increasing by 0.99 percent.
Oil fell dramatically by 8.6 percent on the back of a series of weak economic news. Contrary to expectations, the European Central Bank refused to raise interest rates in order to combat rising inflation. This announcement appreciated the Dollar against the Euro, due to which the price of all commodities took a hard hit.
US Labour Department figures showed that application for jobless claims jumped by 43000 to 474000 in the week ended April 30th.,increasing fears that the US economy is not performing well.
Also, factory orders unexpectedly fell in Germany in March. The Economy Ministry in Berlin stated that factory orders fell by 4 percent, while economists had projected that factory orders would increase by 0.4 percent.
All of these weak economic news resulted in excess selling off of crude futures, which contributed to the substantial decline in oil price.