Oil down on rising stockpiles, escalating Sino-US trade tensions

Oil prices fell on Wednesday in Asia as data from the American Petroleum Institute (API) showed US crude stockpiles rose last week. Escalating Sino-US trade tensions also weighed.

US Crude Oil WTI Futures lost 0.3% to $52.44 by 12:20 AM ET (04:20 GMT). International Brent Oil Futures were down 0.4% to $58.02.

US crude inventories rose by 4.1 million for the week ended Oct. 4, the API said. Gasoline supplies were down by 5.9 million.

Analysts expect that the Energy Information Administration to report a build of 1.4 million barrels when it releases its petroleum data on Wednesday. The EIA numbers are due at 10:30 AM ET.

Worrying signs of intensifying trade tensions between the US and China, the world’s biggest oil importers, also weighed on the market today.

The US put multiple Chinese technology firms on a blacklist earlier this week, while other reports suggested that Washington was moving ahead with efforts to limit capital flows into China.

While high-level officials from the two nations are expected to meet on Thursday, the South China Morning Post said the Chinese delegation could depart Washington a day earlier than scheduled, and that Beijing had toned down expectations of the talks.