The five-day climb for Brent crude oil futures ceased in London on Thursday amidst speculation that the two biggest consumers of the commodity might reduce demand, Bloomberg reports.
The rising price of oil might cause demand for it to slacken in China and the U.S while ongoing fighting in North Africa also is pushing up the price of the commodity.
"We have some signs of the negative impact of high prices on demand in the last weeks, and I would expect more numbers in that direction in coming weeks," Andy Sommer, a senior analyst at EGL in Switzerland, told the news service. "The market is too high right now. If there are no additional supply outages I expect a downward correction."
Prior to 3 p.m. on Thursday, Brent crude oil futures were up 0.23 percent, a 0.28 climb to $122.58 per barrel.
"The Libyan situation has been priced in" to the value of oil, according to Ben Westmore, a minerals and energy economist at National Australia Bank in Melbourne. "We haven't seen further signs of contagion and as a result prices seem relatively comfortable around this range."
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