Oil Prices Steady Before Holiday

Crude oil prices were trading slightly down on Friday afternoon, just hours before the weekend and the Christmas holiday, reasonably unaffected by Angola’s decision to quit OPEC. The price of a barrel of WTI was trading at $74.03, $0.07 down on the day, or a 0.09% dip. Last year, the Friday before Christmas saw WTI trading higher than today, at $79.56 per barrel. Since that time last year, WTI has exchanged hands between $67 and almost $92 per barrel. Brent crude was trading at $79.23 per barrel on Friday, a $0.16 drop or a 0.20% decrease.…