Oil futures continue to strengthen as tensions in the
Middle
East
dominate market sentiments Friday. Front-month Brent rises more than a
dollar to the intra-day high of $101.95/bbl as traders mull the consequence of
Egypt
's
President's decision to stay in office until September.
The oil price rise is
"purely Mubarak driven heading into the weekend and the market is set up
for escalation of tensions in the
Middle East
,"
says Kjeld Lynggaard senior trading strategist at Saxo Bank. "We are in
the hands of geo-politics over the weekend and that's were the [oil] market
will be reflected on Monday," he adds. ICE March Brent +80c at
$101.67/bbl. Nymex March crude +84c at $87.57/bbl.