Crude oil has stabilised ahead of the weekly Petroleum Status Report at 14:30 GMT. Surveys point to a 2M barrel increase while the API report yesterday reported a 1.9M b rise but also falling stocks at Cushing which prevented the WTI delivery hub from reaching a new record.
Sentiment has turned more positive following three weeks of selling. Not least helped by another sizable production cut in Libya due to renewed unrest. $50/b in Brent and $47/b in WTI have now become support after several failed selling attempts.
Oil trading chiefs at FT's Global Commodity Summit in Lausanne believes that the worst of the recent slump is over and that Opec will extend its production cuts into H2.
Following the sell-off WTI needs to rally back above $50/b (38.2% retracement) before we can determine whether this current move up is more than just a correction.
Apart from crude oil and Cushing inventories also look our for gasoline stocks, production and export/import