By Ken Afor
In early Asian trading, Wednesday, oil prices increased due to mounting tensions in the Middle East and a diminishing value of the dollar. Additionally, investors focused on inventory data that had been delayed for two weeks.
At 0013 GMT, Brent futures climbed 8 cents to a barrel to be worth $82.55, and U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose by 2 cents to $78.28.
Israeli forces stated that they were conducting an operation Wednesday against Hamas at Al Shifa, the largest hospital in Gaza.
U.S. President Joe Biden declared Tuesday that he is having daily conversations with the intention of liberating hostages seized by the Hamas militants, and he is optimistic that such liberation will occur.
In two weeks on Wednesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) will put out their initial oil inventory report. As EIA had their systems upgraded, they did not post any storage report last week.
This is in accordance with the data from the American Petroleum Institute which was released on Tuesday and the prediction from the Reuters survey.
The IEA increased its estimates for demand growth on Tuesday, however its projection for 2024 still falls far below OPEC’s forecast.
The demand growth forecasts were increased by Tuesday; however, the 2024 outlook projected by the company is still considerably lower than that of the OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries).
On Tuesday, the group raised its anticipated demand growth rates, though the projection for 2024 still lies considerably beneath that of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
On Wednesday, Japan released its third quarter GDP figures and China released retail sales, industrial output, investment and unemployment figures for October.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden and Xi Jinping, Presidents of the United States and China, respectively, are meeting at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in San Francisco.
