Oil prices amid US-China trade jitters

LONDON, November 19, 2019 – Oil prices fell on Tuesday in Asia amid more US-China trade jitters.

CNBC cited a Chinese government source and said that Beijing is not optimistic about prospects for a trade deal.

Officials in China are troubled by US President Donald Trump’s comment that there was no agreement on phasing out tariffs, according to the report.

US Crude Oil WTI Futures dropped 0.2% to $57.03 by 12:13 AM ET (04:13 GMT), while International Brent Oil Futures slipped 0.1% to $62.36

Despite the slide, WTI is still up 25% on the year and Brent almost 16%.

Looking ahead, traders are also paying close attention to the upcoming Dec. 5-6 OPEC+ meeting.

“We are two weeks away from the next OPEC meeting, and nothing has changed on that front,” said Olivier Jakob of Zug, Switzerland-based oil risk consultancy PetroMatrix.

“At current prices and the upcoming Saudi Aramco IPO, there is nothing to expect from that meeting. The latest updates from OPEC and the IEA still point to a global petroleum stock-build in 2020.”

OPEC+ agreed in December 2018 to cut supply by 1.2 million barrels per day. As that agreement comes up for review in the next three weeks, members of the cartel have already been sounding out that it might not want to deepen cuts.

Traders also await weekly crude inventories reports from the US Energy Information Administration and the American Petroleum Institute this week, which are due on Wednesday and Thursday respectively.

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