By Georgina McCartney

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Oil prices fell on Friday on renewed hopes of a ceasefire in Gaza, while a strong dollar further weighed on the market.

Brent crude prices were down $1.11, or 1.3%, to $84 a barrel by 11:42 a.m. EDT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures dropped $1.08, or 1.3%, to $81.74.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday a long-sought ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas was within sight.

“There remains some issues that need to be resolved, that need to be negotiated. We’re in the midst of doing exactly that,” Blinken told the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado.

The war in Gaza has led investors to price in a risk premium when trading oil, as tensions pose a threat to global supplies.

“Geopolitics is starting to ease just a little to bit so that ought to work in our favor, following the news of this ceasefire,” said Tim Snyder, chief economist at Matador Economics.

The U.S. dollar index climbed after stronger-than-expected data on the U.S. labor market and manufacturing earlier in the week, pressuring oil prices, said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Price Futures Group.

A stronger U.S. currency dampens demand for dollar-denominated oil from buyers holding other currencies.

Elsewhere, Chinese officials acknowledged on Friday the sweeping list of economic goals re-emphasised at the end of a key Communist Party meeting this week contained “many complex contradictions”, pointing to a bumpy road ahead for policy implementation.

China’s economy grew by a slower-than-expected 4.7% in the second quarter, official data showed, sparking concerns over its demand for oil.

A global tech outage on Friday disrupted operations in multiple industries, with airlines halting flights, some broadcasters going off the air and everything from banking to healthcare hit by system problems.

LSEG Group’s data and services were back up and running on Friday after an outage caused some disruption across financial markets earlier in the day. Reuters provides news for LSEG’s Workspace platform.

Meanwhile, two large oil tankers were on fire after colliding in waters near Singapore, the world’s biggest refuelling port, with two crew members airlifted to hospital and others rescued from life rafts, authorities and one of the companies said.

(Reporting by Georgina McCartney in Houston; Ahmad Ghaddar; Additional reporting by Sudarshan Varadhan in Singapore; Editing by David Goodman, Arun Koyyur and Paul Simao)

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