By Peter Nurse
Investing.com - Oil prices edged lower Wednesday, amid worries that the trade deal between China and the U.S. will not be enough to stimulate sufficient additional demand to counter global oversupply.
At 09:40 AM ET (1440 GMT), U.S. crude futures traded 0.% lower at $58.02 a barrel, while the more international-based Brent dropped 0.4% to $64.25.
The overall tone in the crude markets remains weak, with prices trading around six-week lows.
While China and the U.S. are scheduled to sign a trade pact later Wednesday the exact details of the deal aren’t known yet, and U.S, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s comments that there will be no further tariff cuts in the near future point to continued tensions between the two economic powerhouses.
Earlier Wednesday, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries forecast in its market report that the United States will see total output exceed 20 million barrels a day for the first time. This played into expectations that global markets will be oversupplied.
The focus now turns to the release of the U.S. government’s Energy Information Administration’s official data on stockpiles at 10:30 AM ET (1530 GMT). Analysts predict that the EIA will report that inventories rose by 1.1 million barrels in the week ended Jan. 10, in line with the number reported on Tuesday by the American Petroleum Institute.