Oil steadies as U.S. inventory fall tempers demand woes By Reuters

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The Bryan Mound Strategic Petroleum Reserve is seen in an aerial photograph over Freeport, Texas

By Ahmad Ghaddar

LONDON (Reuters) – Oil prices steadied after an early jump on Wednesday as industry data showing a bigger-than-expected drop in inventories, but rising global COVID-19 infections capped price gains.

prices were down 4 cents at $56.54 a barrel by 1032 GMT. Prices rose to a session high of $57.42 a barrel earlier in the session, the highest since Feb. 24.

The next milestone for Brent prices is a rise above $60, a level not seen since late January 2020.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was up 3 cents at $53.24, after hitting a session high of $53.93, its highest since Feb. 20.

“The optimistic mood among investors, coupled with positive signs on the supply and demand sides, is … lending support,” Commerzbank (DE:) said.

Crude stocks in the U.S. dropped by 5.8 million barrels last week to around 484.5 million barrels, data from the American Petroleum Institute showed late on Tuesday. [API/S]

That was far more than analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a fall of 2.3 million barrels.

Official Energy Information Administration inventory data is expected later on Wednesday.

Saudi Arabia cut supplies of crude for February loading for at least three Asian buyers while meeting requirements of at least four others, several refinery and trade sources told Reuters on Wednesday.

But rising COVID-19 death tolls in Europe and the United States and fresh virus containment measures elsewhere weighed on prices.

China recorded the biggest daily jump in COVID cases in more than five months, despite four cities in lockdown, increased testing and other measures aimed at preventing another wave of infections in the world’s second biggest economy.

Disclaimer: Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. All CFDs (stocks, indexes, futures) and Forex prices are not provided by exchanges but rather by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual market price, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Therefore Fusion Media doesn`t bear any responsibility for any trading losses you might incur as a result of using this data.

Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.

!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()
{n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,
‘https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
fbq(‘init’, ‘751110881643258’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);

by : Reuters

Source link

Capital Media

Read Previous

spring will see finances hit as economic impact kicks in

Read Next

Impeachment Vote, CPI, Couche-Tard/Carrefour – What’s up in Markets By Investing.com