Oil Prices See Further Downside As Trump Reiterates Pledge To Boost Production

(RTTNews) - Following the steep drop seen in the previous session, the price of crude oil saw further downside during trading on Thursday.

Crude for March delivery slid $0.42 or 0.6 percent to a one-month low of $70.61 a barrel after plunging $1.67 or 2.3 percent to $71.03 a barrel during Wednesday's session.

Oil prices saw some early strength but came under pressure as President Donald Trump repeated his pledge to increase U.S. oil production in an effort to lower prices.

An uptick by the value of the U.S. dollar also weigh on oil prices along with yesterday's report showing a sharp increase by U.S. crude oil inventories in the week ended January 31st.

The report said crude oil inventories spiked by 8.7 million barrels last week after surging by 3.5 million barrels in the previous week. Economists had expected crude oil inventories to jump by 3.2 million barrels.