Oi🌺l prices surged on Friday a🍸s tensions in the Middle East outweighed concerns about slowing global demand growth and delayed interest rate cuts. 

Brent crude futures climbed more than 2% to trade at a 6-month high above $92 a barrel Friday morning, while 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:West Texas Intermediate broke out above $87 a barrel. As of about 1 p.m. ET, Brent was trading at $90.62 a barr🏅el and WTI at $85.95 a barrel.

The surge came amid reports Israel was expecting a direct attack by Iran in the coming days as retaliation for a suspected Israeli airstrike on the Iranian embassy in Syria♚ on April 1. That strike killed several Iranian military officers, for which Tehran has vowed to exact revenge. 

The threat that escalated fighting in the Middle East could disrupt global oil supply overshadowed an 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:International Energy Agency (IEA) report Friday in which the organization 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:lowered its forecast for global oil-demand growth in 2024 to 1.2 million barrels per day, citing “exceptionally weak” deliveries in 💫Organization for Economic Co-operation and De🔯velopment (OECD) countries, a largely comp💎lete post-COVID rebound, and increasing market s♏hare gains by electric vehicles (EVs), especially in China.

That estimate is well below the forecast published on Thursday by the Organiz🐽ation of the Petroleum Exꦰporting Countries (OPEC), which expects global oil demand to increase by 2.2 million barrels per day this year.

Interest rate concerns have also weighed on oil in recent days. 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Hotter-than-expected inf✱lation data on Wednesday increased the odds interest rates will remain near 23-year highs well into 2024, putting pressure on economic activi♊ty and, subsequently, oil demand.