By Colleen Howe
BEIJING (Reuters) – Oil prices inched down amid mixed market signals on Tuesday, with traders awaiting the outcome of an OPEC+ meeting this week.
futures fell 9 cents, or 0.13%, to $71.74 a barrel by 0205 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 14 cents, or 0.21%, to $67.96.
“Investors are in wait-and-watch mode ahead of the OPEC+ meeting,” ANZ analysts said in a note.
Sources from the producer group say it will extend its latest round of output cuts until the end of the first quarter at its Dec. 5 meeting. OPEC+, which groups the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies such as Russia, has been aiming to unwind the cuts in the first quarter of 2025, but the surplus supply outlook has weighed on prices.
OPEC+ pumps about half the world’s oil.
China’s oil demand is expected to peak as soon as next year, researchers and analysts say, further exacerbating the gap between demand and supply.
Saudi Arabia is expected to cut crude prices for Asian buyers to the lowest level in at least four years, traders said.
Concerns the U.S. Federal Reserve will not cut rates at its December meeting has also been keeping a lid on oil prices, offsetting some positive signals from China where the purchasing manager index rose to a seven-month high in November.
Oil prices on both sides of the Atlantic fell more than 3% last week.
Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller, whose views are often a bellwether for U.S. monetary policy, said on Monday he was inclined to support another rate cut this month, but Atlanta Federal Reserve President Raphael Bostic maintained the Fed still needed to consider upcoming jobs data.
In the Middle East, holes continued to appear in a U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and militant group Hezbollah, with nine people killed in strikes on two southern Lebanese towns shortly after Hezbollah fired missiles on an Israeli military position in the disputed Shebaa Farms area on Monday.
