European stocks moved higher and oil prices reversed course and fell 1 percent on Wednesday as investors’ concerns eased over the potential fallout of Turkey’s shooting down of a Russian fighter jet.
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Prices rose after Turkey downed a Russian warplane on the Syrian border on Tuesday because of fears that any escalation of the conflict would affect crude supplies.
Crude oil futures fell on Friday with losses this month standing at over 8 percent, hurt by disappointing Chinese economic data and worries over a supply glut.
Crude stockpiles in the USA rose 961,000 bbl to 488.2 million last week, according to an Energy Information Administration report Wednesday.
Brent North Sea crude for January delivery was down 71 USA cents at $45.46 at 0530 Friday AEDT.
The size of hedge funds’ shorting positions against the oil price has reached a peak for this year, ahead of next week’s OPEC meeting.
This past Monday, Saudi Arabia indicated it was preparing to cooperate with other oil-producing nations, but this had a negligible impact on the market because there is little chance that Saudi Arabia will unilaterally cut production. A stronger greenback makes dollar-denominated commodities, including oil, less affordable for holders of currencies such as the euro.
OPEC maintained it output quota of 30 million barrels per day at June’s meeting.
“We highly value our interaction within consultations on the situation in the oil market between OPEC and leading non-OPEC producers”, Novak said.
Brent for January settlement advanced 5 cents to end the session at $46.17/bbl on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange.
Trading volume was also thin due to a USA public holiday.
US crude’s West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures flirted in both negative and positive territory in morning trade, slipping 2 cents, or 0.05 percent, to $43.02 a barrel as of 0133 GMT. The STEO forecast of annual average US regular gasoline retail prices is $2.43/g in 2015 and $2.33/g in 2016, well below the $3.36/g price in 2014.
The output target could rise further after the USA lifted sanctions on Iran over its nuclear energy program, clearing the way for Iranian oil to hit the markets. CRAK’s Asia country components include Japan 14.3%, South Korea 8.2%, India 6.8%, Taiwan 4.5% and Thailand 3.2%.
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Growth in gross domestic product is healthy at a 2.4 percent rate.
