NEW YORK, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- A string of weak figures from Western economies took some of the steam out of the growth momentum in crude oil prices during the Wednesday trading session.
Crude oil markets shrugged off early Tuesday retreats to post a positive gain by the end of the session. Oil prices have been on a general increase since the start of February as investors try to look forward from the mid-2014 bear market.
Oil prices from June to January lost more than 50 percent of the value, causing a ripple effect in the global economy. Exporters, like Russia, are losing out, while economies that rely heavily on imports are weathering the storm.
Recent trends in global oil prices are in part a response to the increase in U.S. oil production. As with global economies, revenues from states like Texas are dwindling in response to the weak crude oil market.
The U.S. Commerce Department said Wednesday new home construction in January was 2 percent below December levels, with single-family housing starts falling off 6.7 percent. Overall, however, the January rate was 18.7 percent higher year-on-year.
The price for West Texas Intermediate crude oil, the U.S. benchmark, was off more than 2 percent from the previous close to trade at $52.53, still in the March contract. WTI, however, is still 18 percent above its low point in late January.
Worries over the state of the European economy continued Wednesday. Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, said production in the construction sector fell 0.8 percent for the core 18 economies in the region. As a whole, production fell 0.5 percent from November to December. The price for Brent, the global crude oil benchmark, was off 2.1 percent from the previous day to sell for $61.21 for the April contract. Brent traded briefly below the $50 mark in 2015.
An annual report from BP said "the current weakness in the oil market, which stems in large part from strong growth in tight oil production in the US, is likely to take several years to work through."
