Oil trims losses as U.S. deploys equipment and forces to Saudi Arabia
Oil futures gave up most of their losses by the time prices settled Thursday. In a press release Thursday, the U.S. Department of Defense said that "in light of recent attacks on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," the U.S. would deploy "one patriot battery, four sentinel RADARs and approximately 200 support personnel" to the kingdom. "The move by the U.S. military to support Saudi Arabia put an end to the unwinding of the risk premium that had been introduced following the drone attack [nearly] two weeks ago," Marshall Steeves, energy markets analyst at IHS Markit, told MarketWatch. November West Texas Intermediate oil , which expired at the end of the session, fell 8 cents, or 0.1%, to end at $56.41 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after trading as low as $55.41.
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