<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oil prices held largely steady in Asian trading on Friday, pausing after the previous session\u2019s gains, as stalled diplomatic efforts to end the Ukraine war and rising confidence in a U.S. Federal Reserve rate cut underpinned sentiment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As of 21:56 ET (02:56 GMT), Brent crude futures<\/strong> for February delivery slipped 0.2% to $63.15<\/strong> per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI)<\/strong> futures dipped 0.3% to $59.30<\/strong> per barrel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both benchmarks gained nearly 1% on Thursday<\/strong>, with WTI on track for a 1.5% weekly rise<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oil prices found support after high-level talks between U.S. and Russian officials earlier this week failed to yield any meaningful progress toward a Ukraine ceasefire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The absence of a breakthrough reduced hopes that sanctions on Russian crude might be eased soon, reinforcing expectations that geopolitical risk and potential supply disruptions will persist<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Recent Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy infrastructure have further heightened concerns over supply stability, analysts noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Broader market sentiment was also lifted by growing confidence that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at next week\u2019s policy meeting. Futures currently price in a strong likelihood of a 25-basis-point reduction<\/strong>, as investors increasingly expect the Fed to respond to cooling economic indicators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The latest U.S. labour market data painted a mixed picture:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Markets now turn their attention to Friday\u2019s release of the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index<\/strong> \u2014 the Fed\u2019s preferred inflation gauge. Oil markets remain sensitive to both geopolitical developments and monetary policy signals as traders assess the balance between supply risks and demand trends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Oil prices held largely steady in Asian trading on Friday, pausing after the previous session\u2019s gains, as stalled diplomatic efforts to end the Ukraine war and rising confidence in a U.S. Federal Reserve rate cut underpinned sentiment. As of 21:56 ET (02:56 GMT), Brent crude futures for February delivery slipped 0.2% to $63.15 per barrel, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":60920,"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":[],"class_list":["post-121438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-commodities-news","category-daily-economic-reports","category-economic-reports","category-market-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121438","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=121438"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121439,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121438\/revisions\/121439"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Stalled Ukraine peace negotiations keep risk premium elevated<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Fed rate cut expectations remain firm<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
All eyes on U.S. PCE inflation data<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
A softer reading could reinforce the case for easing, potentially providing additional support for crude prices<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n