(New York) Oil prices, which fell slightly on Monday in the first part of the session, stabilized, investors being cautious before a week full of market reports and monetary policy decisions.
The price of a barrel of Brent from the North Sea, for delivery in February, gained 0.25% to $76.03.
Its American equivalent, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery in January, gained 0.12% to $71.32.
“The market has stabilized even if it is not entirely convinced that the worst is over,” summarized Phil Flynn, analyst at Price Future Group, after the fall in prices over the last two weeks.
“In addition, we are expecting a lot of news this week with the Fed’s monetary policy decision and before that, the publication of CPI inflation and producer prices” in the US, he underlined.
“We are going to get value for our money, all this data has the capacity to move oil, but also the dollar and the stock market,” he promised.
The American central bank (Fed) will indicate on Wednesday whether, as expected, it leaves its rates unchanged, but before that, the CPI inflation index will be monitored on Tuesday. Analysts are betting on stagnant prices for the month.
At the same time, the market is “still concerned about Chinese demand and whether OPEC+ will carry out the new production cuts,” Mr. Flynn said.
Despite the extension of these production cuts until March 2024, and the amputation of an additional 900,000 barrels by other members of the OPEC+ group (OPEC and its allies), investors are still skeptical.
The week is also proving to be busy with market data, with investors awaiting the publication of monthly reports from OPEC and also the International Energy Agency (IEA).
“It will be interesting to see if OPEC continues to insist that the oil market is undersupplied in its monthly report,” note DNB analysts.
“It is quite paradoxical that OPEC agrees to further reduce its supply, while (the group’s latest) report on the oil market shows an insufficient supply of 2.7 million barrels per day for the fourth quarter and 1. 7 million barrels per day for 2024,” they argue.