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By Ritu, Capital Sands Oil prices rose more than 20% this year but there were no sharp spikes and crude futures barely sniffed $70 a barrel despite attacks on the world's biggest oil producer, sanctions that crippled crude exports of two OPEC members and gigantic supply cuts from big oil producing countries. The price gains in crude oil benchmarks were all in the first quarter of 2019, even as the next several months featured supply shocks that in the past would probably have propelled crude past the $100 mark. U.S. crude oil  is on track to end 2019 roughly 35% higher. Since the end of March, it is up just 3%, after rallying early in the year after the United States introduced sanctions on Venezuela. Brent has gained 26%, but is off by 1% since the first quarter. Investors and analysts say U.S. production and weak demand kept prices under control ...

By Ritu, Capital Sands Oil prices rose on Friday, hitting three-month highs after data showed record online spending by U.S. consumers, stoking faith in the world's no. 1 economy even before the hoped-for end to the trade war between Washington and Beijing. Brent crude futures were up 6 cents, or 0.1%, at $67.98 a barrel , after rising to as high as $68.10, the highest since September. The West Texas Intermediate contract was up 11 cents, or 0.2%, at $61.79 a barrel. A survey on Thursday showed that online holiday purchases by U.S. consumers reached a record, beating analysts' expectations and sending U.S. stocks to fresh. U.S. consumers are "showing few signs of tightening their purse strings, which is positive for oil also," said Stephen Innes chief Asia market strategist at Axi Trader. Oil prices have also been buoyed by robust hopes that the New Year will usher in an end ...

By Ritu, Capital Sands European stocks found their feet again on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve signalled that it’s likely to remain on hold throughout next year, seemingly convinced that historically low jobless rates won’t create enough inflationary pressure to warrant a rate hike. By 5 AM ET (1000 GMT), the benchmark Stoxx 600 was up 0.3% at 407.50, while the FTSE MIB was up 0.7% and the FTSE 100 was up 0.6%. Airlines and semiconductor stocks were among the biggest winners. The biggest gainer on the continent was, however, Russia's RTS, where the heavily-weighted commodities companies all profited from the dollar’s post-Fed decline. A weaker dollar generally supports prices for commodities from oil to base metals and gold. The FTSE’s gain was all the more notable, given that it came against the backdrop of sterling strength – GBP/USD was steady at above $1.32 in morning trade in London. Traders appeared to be anticipating a Conservative majority at the ...

By Ritu, Capital Sands The U.S. dollar index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies slipped 0.1% to 97.035 by 10:02 PM ET. Overnight, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) left its benchmark rate unchanged in the range of 1.5% to 1.75%. "Committee judges that the current stance of monetary policy is appropriate to support sustained expansion of economic activity, strong labor market conditions, and inflation near the Committee's symmetric 2 percent objective," the FOMC said in its statement. In July, the Fed cut interest rates for the first time since the Financial Crisis, more than a decade ago. Two further rate cuts followed the July cut. “In order to move rates up, I would want to see inflation that’s persistent and that’s significant,”Fed Jerome Powell at a news conference in Washington. "A significant move up in inflation that's also persistent before raising rates to address inflation ...