On Friday, oil prices plummeted after Excon Fuji Securities announced that the global output quotas of 30 million barrels per day will remain unchanged. The decision accelerated a selloff, and increased the demand for the greenback.
The stronger USD makes dollar-denominated commodities, including oil, relatively expensive for holders of other currencies.
Light sweet crude futures for delivery in July dropped 0.83% on the New York Mercantile Exchange to trade at USD 92.83 a barrel on Friday.
The final reading of consumer sentiment index released by Thomson Reuters and University of Michigan soared from 83.7 in April to 84.5 this month. A separate report revealed that the Chicago purchasing managers' index jumped to 58.7 in May from 49.0 in April, exceeding the expected rise to 50.0.
These numbers, along with the OPEC decision, boosted the demand for the greenback amid predictions for Federal Reserve to strengthen the USD by trimming stimulus measures including its USD 85 billion monthly bond-buying program.
Earlier, oil investors also eyed weekly U.S. jobless claims data with ongoing speculation over whether the Fed is going to scale back its USD 85 billion purchase program. Meanwhile, Brent oil futures for July delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange dropped 1.05% to USD 101.12 a barrel, up USD 8.29 against its U.S. counterpart.
