Crude oil prices recorded early gains at the third trading session of the week. Oil traders are riding, on high hopes on progress made by COVID-19 vaccine rollouts in the world’s largest economy.
At the time of drafting this report, U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures gained 0.3%, to $59.93 a barrel, partly recovering from the week losses.
Also the British-based oil contract, Brent crude surged by 0.46%, to trade at $62.99 a barrel, up from four days of losses.
However, it’s fair to say the bulls were not yet in full control as recent price action suggested capped gains.
Some oil pundits anticipate energy demand recovery is on the right track partly to the successful rollouts of COVID-19 vaccines at emerged markets.
That being said, Stephen Innes, Chief Global Market Strategist at Axi in a note to Nairametrics spoke on the rising oil stockpiles at the world’s largest economy, keeping oil bulls far from holding their grip,
“U.S oil stockpiles rose last week and product inventories fell sharply in a cause and effect of the cold snap that forced refiners to shut down Texas operations.
“The unexpectedly large crude inventories build hit at a worrying time for oil bulls. This is particularly significant on the rising possibility that OPEC major oil producers could agree to ease production cuts at a critical meeting this week amid concerns that demand will likely outstrip supply as the global vaccine-led recovery gathers a head of steam,” Innes said.
What to expect: Oil traders are anxiously waiting for Thursday’s OPEC+ meeting. It appears to represent some overdue caution going into the OPEC+ meeting as market participants continue to draw straws and attempt to gauge the likely rise in production.
