oil futures fell friday and were on track for weekly declines after a flurry of rate increases around the world this week heightened fears of a sharp economic slowdown   west texas intermediate crude for august delivery cl00 cl1 clq23 fell 107 or 15 to 6844 a barrel on the new york mercantile exchange putting the us benchmark on track for a 48 weekly fall   august brent crude brnq23 the global benchmark was down 90 cents or 12 at 7324 a barrel on ice futures europe down 44 for the week   back on nymex july gasoline rbn23 dropped 11 to 2523 a gallon while july heating oil hon23 dropped 14 to 2432 a gallon gasoline was headed for a 59 weekly tumble with heating oil off 47   july natural gas ngn23 rose 05 to 2621 per million british thermal units leaving it down 04 for the week wti futures have dropped below 70 a barrel four times this year with increasing frequency but each time technical support between 67 and 69 a barrel has held noted analysts at sevens report research in a friday note each subsequent bounce in prices has run out of steam at a lower price point “this heavy price action with repetitive tests of the same support and continuously weaker recoveries suggests the oil market is approaching a tipping point poised to either break down to new 2023 lows or finally move beyond the 7273 area triggering a squeeze as sentiment and positioning in the energy markets is very bearish” they wrote crude dropped sharply thursday after the bank of england and norway’s central bank each raised rates by half a percentage point while the swiss national bank delivered a quarterpoint increase federal reserve chair jerome powell in a second day of congressional testimony reiterated expectations by policy makers for two more rate increases after the central bank left rates unchanged last week see global growth outlook deteriorates on central bank rate hikes raising risks for us and markets the focus on central banks outweighed what analysts described as a largely supportive weekly fall of 38 million barrels in us crude inventories reported by the energy information administration the us dollar was rallying versus major rivals with the ice us dollar index dxy  a measure of the currency against a basket of six major rivals was up 06 on friday a stronger dollar can put pressure on commodities priced in the unit making them more expensive to users of other currencies