{"id":110368,"date":"2025-01-09T11:58:12","date_gmt":"2025-01-09T07:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/?p=110368"},"modified":"2025-01-09T11:58:15","modified_gmt":"2025-01-09T07:58:15","slug":"oil-prices-steady-amid-seasonal-demand-and-rising-u-s-inventories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/oil-prices-steady-amid-seasonal-demand-and-rising-u-s-inventories\/01\/09\/market-updates\/","title":{"rendered":"Oil Prices Steady Amid Seasonal Demand and Rising U.S. Inventories"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Oil prices held steady on Thursday as markets balanced strong winter fuel demand expectations with concerns over rising U.S. fuel inventories and macroeconomic uncertainties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Brent crude<\/strong> futures dipped by 6 cents to $76.10 per barrel at 07:27 GMT.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>West Texas Intermediate (WTI)<\/strong> crude futures declined by 5 cents to $73.27 per barrel.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>This follows a 1% decline in both benchmarks on Wednesday, driven by a stronger dollar and larger-than-expected U.S. inventory builds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Demand vs. Macroeconomic Pressure<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Analysts highlighted contrasting market forces. Kelvin Wong, senior market analyst at OANDA, noted, \u201cSeasonal demand supports bullish sentiment, but macroeconomic data and a stronger U.S. dollar cap further gains.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>JPMorgan\u2019s Outlook<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Oil demand in January is forecast to rise by 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd) year-on-year, reaching 101.4 million bpd.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Colder-than-average winter conditions and Lunar New Year travel in China are fueling heating and transportation fuel demand.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Market Structure<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Brent futures&#8217; backwardation widened, with the prompt-month contract trading at a premium over the six-month contract, signaling tightening supply amidst rising demand.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>U.S. Inventory Data and Dollar Strength<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported increases in gasoline and distillate stockpiles, which weighed on prices. Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar strengthened further, supported by higher Treasury yields ahead of President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s inauguration on January 20.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Supply Adjustments and Price Outlook<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Saudi Arabia plans to reduce crude oil supply to China in February, following an increase in official selling prices for Asia\u2014the first hike in three months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Price Projections<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>WTI crude is expected to range between $67.55 and $77.95 into February, as markets await clarity on Trump\u2019s policy directions and potential fiscal stimulus from China, according to Wong.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Key Takeaways<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The oil market is caught between bullish seasonal demand drivers and bearish pressures from inventory builds and a strong U.S. dollar. With supply adjustments and geopolitical developments in focus, oil prices may remain range-bound in the short term.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oil prices held steady on Thursday as markets balanced strong winter fuel demand expectations with concerns over rising U.S. fuel inventories and macroeconomic uncertainties. Brent crude futures dipped by 6 cents to $76.10 per barrel at 07:27 GMT. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures declined by 5 cents to $73.27 per barrel. This follows a &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":108378,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,6827,49,36],"tags":[8137,9118],"class_list":["post-110368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-commodities-news","category-daily-economic-reports","category-economic-reports","category-market-updates","tag-oil-demand","tag-oil-supplies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110368"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110370,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110368\/revisions\/110370"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}