Oil dips amid bullish DXY, ignores OPEC cut hopes

Oil prices on both sides of the Atlantic extends southwards for the third straight session on the final trading day of this week as a broadly stronger US dollar offsets optimism surrounding OPEC output cut hopes.

Oil tracks USD price-action

Currently, both crude benchmarks trade in the negative territory, with Brent down -0.80% around $ 46.12 while WTI drops over -1% to 44.95 levels. Oil prices extend its bearish momentum into Europe, mainly driven by resurgence of USD demand, in wake yesterday’s bullish comments by Fed Chair Yellen.

Reuters reports, “The U.S. dollar index .DXY reached a 13-1/2-year high on comments by U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen as she said the rate increase could happen "relatively soon", indicating higher chances of the rate hike in December.”

The resurgence of broad based US dollar strength outweighs hopes that OPEC will clinch an output cut deal later this month at the producers’ meet in Vienna. Meanwhile, attention now turns towards today’s Doha meeting, where OPEC and non-OPEC nations’ officials will hold informal talks on potential output curbs.

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