Oil price rally takes a breather after Monday’s big gains

Oil futures retreated on Tuesday, with crude prices pausing after a sharp run-up in the previous session that had been partly fueled by reports that Yemen’s Houthi rebels launched a drone attack over the weekend on one of Saudi Arabia’s largest oil fields.

West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery CLV19, -0.07% lost 25 cents, or 0.5%, to $55.90 a barrel, after the most-active contract gained 2.4% on Monday. October Brent BRNV19, -0.05% edged 20 cents, or 0.3%, lower at $59.64 a barrel, following a 1.9% gain in the previous session.

Oil prices have mostly risen over the past two weeks as expectations that central banks across the globe will combat signs of recession with greater stimulus that could help stimulate appetite for crude and other energy assets.

“Global oil demand forecasts are likely to see upgrades as central banks and governments become more aggressive in delivering stimulus,” wrote Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda, in a daily research note.

“With expectations for this week’s inventory data to post a small draw, we could see oil remain focused on geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and updates on Germany’s stimulus plan and further cues from the Fed,” he wrote.

Investors are awaiting inventory data from the American Petroleum Institute later Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time, which will be followed by the closely watched U.S. Energy Information Administration report at 10:30 a.m on Wednesday.

In the previous session crude markets bucked higher after the Houthis on Saturday said they targeted the Shaybah oil field, which is owned by Saudi Arabian Oil Co., or Aramco, and holds about 14 billion barrels of oil, according to The Wall Street Journal. Aramco said a fire was extinguished at a natural-gas processing plant and that there were no injuries and no disruptions to production at the field, which produces around 1 million barrels of oil a day.

MarketWatch

Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.

Ed Moya

Ed Moya

Contributing Author at OANDA
With more than 20 years’ trading experience, Ed Moya was a Senior Market Analyst with OANDA for the Americas from November 2018 to November 2023. His particular expertise lies across a wide range of asset classes including FX, commodities, fixed income, stocks and cryptocurrencies. Over the course of his career, Ed has worked with some of the leading forex brokerages, research teams and news departments on Wall Street including Global Forex Trading, FX Solutions and Trading Advantage. Prior to OANDA he worked with TradeTheNews.com, where he provided market analysis on economic data and corporate news. Based in New York, Ed is a regular guest on several major financial television networks including CNBC, Bloomberg TV, Yahoo! Finance Live, Fox Business, cheddar news, and CoinDesk TV. His views are trusted by the world’s most respected global newswires including Reuters, Bloomberg and the Associated Press, and he is regularly quoted in leading publications such as MSN, MarketWatch, Forbes, Seeking Alpha, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Ed holds a BA in Economics from Rutgers University.