WTI recovers modestly on renewed trade optimism, stays below $57

• US official says  there is high probability that they will reach a deal with China.
• Rising oil production in the US continues to weigh on oil prices.
• Coming up: Baker Hughes’ US Oil Rig Count.

Crude oil prices remained under modest selling pressure throughout the week as they  failed to capitalize on the  Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) upbeat demand growth outlook and expectations for additional supply cuts in December.

Oil awaits clarity on US-China trade dispute

The uncertainty surrounding the United States (US)-China trade conflict and increasing production in the US didn’t allow crude oil to push higher. The barrel of West Texas Intermediate, which rose to $57.75 on Thursday, is now posting modest losses at $56.70 ahead of Baker Hughes’ weekly Oil Rig Count data. US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in the last hour noted that there was a very high probability that they will reach a trade deal with China help the WTI limit its losses for the time being.

“We’re much farther along with details of the trade deal with China, there are many active calls,” Ross told Fox Business Network.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly oil market report revealed that  crude oil stocks in the US rose by 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd)  in the week ending November 8 to come in higher than the market expectation for an increase of 1.6 million barrels. More importantly, producers ramped up the output by 200,000 bpd to a weekly record of 12.8 million bpd.