Oil Price — Brent spot, refreshed about every 5 minutes
The oil price (Brent spot) is temporarily unavailable: none of this page's data sources has returned a current quote, so no price is shown.
No current daily close history. Benchmark is Brent crude (the global seaborne benchmark), in US dollars per barrel: the spot price, or the front-month future when the spot feed is down. WTI is not shown.
What oil tells an FX trader
Oil is the macro variable that most directly drives the commodity currencies. The Canadian dollar reacts most clearly — Canada is a major crude exporter, so USD/CAD tends to fall (CAD strengthens) when oil rises. The Norwegian krone behaves similarly. On the other side, big oil importers like Japan and the euro area see their terms of trade worsen when crude spikes, which can weigh on the yen and euro.
Oil is also an inflation input, so a sustained move feeds into rate expectations and therefore into the yield curve and the dollar. A supply-driven oil spike is stagflationary and tends to be dollar-supportive via higher yields; a demand-driven slump often coincides with risk-off and a firmer dollar against commodity FX.
This page tracks Brent, the global seaborne benchmark, rather than WTI. For the currencies most sensitive to a given oil move, cross-reference the currency-strength meter and the correlation matrix.
What moves the oil price
- Supply. OPEC+ production decisions, US shale output, and outages from conflict, sanctions or weather. Supply news tends to move the price fastest.
- Demand. Global growth, above all in China and the US, plus seasonal patterns such as summer driving and winter heating.
- Inventories. The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) publishes weekly crude stocks on Wednesdays at 10:30 ET, a day later after a US holiday. A larger draw than expected usually lifts the price; an unexpected build weighs on it.
- The dollar. Oil is priced in dollars, so a weaker dollar makes it cheaper for buyers paying in other currencies and tends to support the price. A stronger dollar does the reverse.
Brent vs WTI
Brent and WTI are the two crude benchmarks most quotes refer to. Brent futures trade on ICE Futures Europe and are priced off North Sea crude; they are cash-settled and are the reference for most internationally traded oil. WTI (West Texas Intermediate) futures trade on NYMEX and settle by physical delivery at Cushing, Oklahoma, so they reflect US inland supply and storage. Brent usually trades a few dollars above WTI. The two move together most of the time, but the gap widens when US storage fills up or when a disruption hits seaborne supply. This page shows Brent only.
How to read this oil price page
The headline figure is the latest Brent spot quote, fetched about every 5 minutes, with the change against the previous close. The 50-day and 200-day moving averages are averages of daily closing prices: a price above both means the trend is up by that measure, below both means down, and between them usually means the market is turning or ranging. The chart shows the last 90 daily closes, and the note under it gives the 52-week high and low, so you can see where today's price sits in the past year's range. Brent trades almost around the clock on weekdays; at weekends the page shows the last traded price and says the market is closed.
FAQ
Is this WTI or Brent crude?
This page tracks Brent crude, the global seaborne benchmark used to price most internationally traded oil. WTI (West Texas Intermediate) is the US domestic benchmark and is not shown here.
Why does the oil price matter for forex?
Oil drives the commodity currencies. The Canadian dollar and Norwegian krone tend to strengthen when oil rises (major exporters), while oil importers like Japan see their currency pressured. Oil is also an inflation input that feeds into rates and the dollar.
How does oil affect USD/CAD?
Canada is one of the world's largest oil exporters, so a higher oil price improves Canada's terms of trade and tends to strengthen the Canadian dollar — a falling USD/CAD. A falling oil price tends to lift USD/CAD.
How often does the oil price update here?
The Brent price is fetched about every 5 minutes, and the page shows the time of the quote it uses. If the data source has no current quote, the price is hidden rather than shown out of date. The moving averages and 90-day chart are built from daily closing prices.
Why is oil priced in US dollars?
The main benchmark futures, Brent on ICE and WTI on NYMEX, are denominated in dollars, and most international crude contracts are priced off them. That is why a move in the dollar feeds straight into the oil price.
How much oil is in a barrel?
A barrel is 42 US gallons, about 159 litres. The price on this page is US dollars per barrel of Brent.
When is the weekly oil inventory report?
The EIA releases US crude inventories on Wednesdays at 10:30 ET, or Thursday after a Monday holiday. The American Petroleum Institute publishes its own estimate on Tuesday afternoons, and the market often moves on the gap between the two.
Is this the spot or the futures price?
The spot price. The headline is Brent spot, which usually sits within about a dollar of the front-month futures contract most news quotes use. If the spot feed has no current quote, the page shows the front-month Brent future instead and says so next to the price.