It was not a good week for Saudi Arabia. After announcing a unilateral production cut of one million barrels per day last Sunday to support prices, crude prices fell during the week instead of increasing. On Friday WTI settled at $70.17/bbl, off $1.12/bbl for the day, or $1.57/bbl for the week. WTI also declined the previous week.
As usual, today’s decline was in part based on weak China economic data. China's May “factory gate” prices declined at the fastest rate in seven years as the manufacturing sector slowed.