{"id":9345,"date":"2024-01-03T11:37:27","date_gmt":"2024-01-03T11:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/roydadnaft.ir\/English\/?p=9345"},"modified":"2024-01-03T11:37:27","modified_gmt":"2024-01-03T11:37:27","slug":"oil-prices-edge-lower-with-investors-cautious-ahead-of-u-s-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/roydadnaft.ir\/English\/9345\/","title":{"rendered":"Oil prices edge lower with investors cautious ahead of U.S. data"},"content":{"rendered":"

RoydadNaft – <\/a><\/span>\u00a0Oil prices dipped slightly on Wednesday after sharp moves earlier in the week, with investors cautious about the U.S. economy amid supply disruptions from persistent tensions in the Red Sea.<\/p>\n

Brent crude fell 39 cents to $75.50 a barrel by 1056 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures slipped 51 cents to $69.87 a barrel.<\/p>\n

Prices had climbed around $2 earlier in the week following attacks on vessels in the Red Sea by Houthi rebels. On Tuesday they fired two anti-ship ballistic missiles into the Southern Red Sea, though no damage was reported.<\/p>\n

A wider conflict could close crucial waterways for oil transportation and disrupt trade flows.<\/p>\n

“Although the supply of oil has not been affected, as reflected in yesterday\u2019s oil price sell-off, the nervousness is conspicuous,” said Tamas Varga of oil broker PVM.<\/p>\n

Both benchmarks ended Tuesday more than 1% down, with optimism about early and aggressiveU.S. interest rate cuts also ebbing ahead of the release of Federal Reserve meeting minutes and jobs data on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

“The market bade farewell to 2023 with a considerable liquidation of length and persisting anxiety about the geopolitical outlook failed to draw buyers back to the fore as the new year has kicked off,” added Varga.<\/p>\n

Israeli forces intensified their bombing of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, after the war stretched into Lebanon with the killing in Beirut of Hamas’ deputy leader.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, expectations of ample oil supply in the first half of 2024 have kept a lid on prices ahead of OPEC+ plans to hold a meeting of its Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) in early February.<\/p>\n

An exact date has not been decided, three sources from the alliance told.<\/p>\n

The decision to hold the meeting in early February suggests OPEC+ is possibly growing uneasy over currently weak oil market conditions, despite voluntary cuts of 2.2 million barrels a day for the first quarter agreed in November, OANDA’s senior market analyst Kevin Wong said.<\/p>\n

“WTI oil is likely to trade sideways in the short term between $68.90 and $72.30 a barrel (close to the downward-sloping 20-day moving average),” he added.<\/p>\n

Ahead of weekly U.S. crude and product inventory reports, analysts polled by Reuters expected crude stockpiles fell last week, while distillate and gasoline stocks likely rose.<\/p>\n

Updated on