WTI: Upside stalls near $ 57.50 on fresh US-China trade jitters

• Oil cautious amid fresh US-China trade tensions on farm purchases.  
• But bulls find some support from bullish API crude data.
• Awaits fresh trade updates and EIA Crude Stocks data for further impulse.

WTI (oil futures on NYMEX) started out this Thursday modestly flat, although remains close to Wednesday’ high of 57.53, reached after the release of the American Petroleum Institute’s (API) bullish weekly Crude Stocks report.

The API data showed that the US crude inventories fell by 541,000 barrels in the week to Nov. 8 to 440 million versus expectations for an increase of 1.6 million barrels.

The black gold staged a solid comeback on Wednesday and recovered more than a dollar, helped by the upbeat remarks on the economic outlook from the Fed Chair Powell and OPEC Secretary-General Barkindo.

Powell said in his testimony that the US economy would see a “sustained expansion” with the full impact of recent interest rate cuts still to be felt. Meanwhile, Barkindo noted that global economic fundamentals remained strong and he saw no signs of a global recession.

However, the black gold stalled its recovery momentum, as the US-China trade jitters resurfaced weighed negatively on the higher-yielding oil. The Wall Street Journal reported US-China trade negotiations “hit a snag” over farm purchases, which reinforced fresh doubts over the likely trade deal and triggered a fresh bout of risk-aversion.

Looking ahead, the trade-related headlines will continue to have a significant influence on the prices, as markets await the official weekly US Energy Information Administration (EIA) Crude Stocks data, dropping later on Thursday at 1600 GMT.

WTI Levels to watch