Oil prices fall amid larger-than-expected US crude build

Oil prices fell on Wednesday in Asia as a big US crude build overshadowed positive Sino-US trade news.

US Crude Oil WTI Futures dropped 0.5% to $56.95 by 12:05 AM ET (04:05 GMT). International Brent Oil Futures also fell 0.5% to $62.64.

The fall in oil prices came after the American Petroleum Institute reported overnight that US crude inventories rose by 4.3 million barrels in the week ended Nov. 1 to 440.5 million barrels. That was nearly triple the forecast of an increase of 1.5 million barrels.

Official data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) is due later in the day.

The inventory data largely overshadowed hopes of a breakthrough on Sino-US trade talks.

Beijing and Washington are reportedly closing in on a phase one trade deal, although today’s reports said Beijing is trying to push the US to remove more tariffs on Chinese goods as part of the deal.

Both countries have slapped tariffs on each other’s goods in a trade war that has dragged on for 16 months.