- Oil is posting small daily gains following a two-day slump.
- OPEC’s oil output declined by 870,000 bpd in February.
- Eyes on US oil inventory data, OPEC+ meeting.
Crude oil prices closed the second straight trading day in the negative territory on Monday and the barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) lost nearly 5% in that time span. Although WTI extended its slide and touched its lowest level in a week at $59.43 earlier in the day, it staged a technical rebound and was last seen gaining 0.6% at $60.55.
Focus shifts to US inventory figures, OPEC+ meeting
At the start of the week, the disappointing Manufacturing PMI data from China, which showed that the factory activity expanded at its softest pace in nine months, weighed on crude oil prices.
On the other hand, a recently conducted Reuters survey showed that the OPEC’s oil output in February declined by 870,000 barrels per day led by Saudi Arabia’s voluntary cuts. Nevertheless, this report failed to provide a boost to crude oil prices as investors await Thursday’s OPEC+ meeting on the group’s output strategy.
Ahead of that critical event, the American Petroleum Institue and the US Energy Information Administration will release the inventory reports on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.
Technical levels to watch for