Brent settles at $116.72, highest since April, after Houthi attacks in Saudi Arabia; gold heads for steepest weekly fall since June

Oil prices settled more than $3 higher on Friday 23 October at their highest level in nearly six months, after Houthi attacks in Saudi Arabia raised concerns about further disruption to Middle East energy supplies, Reuters reported.

Brent crude futures settled at $116.72 a barrel, up $3.55 or 3.14%, the highest settlement since 29 April. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude closed at $103.27, up $3.80 or 3.8%. Over the week, Brent rose 6% and WTI 2.3%. These were the latest settlement prices as of 6pm GMT on Sunday 25 October, before futures trading resumed for the new week.

“Fears of supply disruptions drove the advance after Iranian-backed Houthi rebels carried out a series of attacks across Saudi Arabia, including on energy infrastructure,” Adam Turnquist, chief cross-asset strategist at LPL Financial, told Reuters. United Arab Emirates authorities also reported an oil spill from a tanker off the coast of Umm Al Quwain.

The US Department of Energy said it had authorised an emergency exchange of up to 400,000 barrels of crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve because of a supply disruption at Phillips 66’s Lake Charles refinery in Louisiana, Reuters reported. Germany’s stockpiling agency EBV put out a tender to sell diesel, heating oil and crude from its reserves.

Gold moved the other way. Spot gold fell 0.6% to $3,998.49 an ounce by 2:27pm New York time (6:27pm GMT) on Friday, below $4,000 for the first time since mid-July, and was down about 4% for the week, on course for its worst week since June, CNBC reported. December gold futures settled 1.3% lower at $4,007.90. Jim Wyckoff, a market analyst at American Gold Exchange, told CNBC that inflation concerns suggested major central banks would not be able to ease policy as quickly as they wanted.

See also: Brent at a five-month high earlier in the week and UAE oil spill closes beaches.