ALBAWABA – Oil prices rose slightly Tuesday in Asian trade, after having slipped 1.5 percent globally on Monday for both Brent and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) benchmarks, Reuters reported.
Brent crude was up $0.1 to $78.60 a barrel, while WTI crude rose $0.14 to $74.29 a barrel.
Traders and investors are looking forward to the release of United States (US) crude oil stockpiles data, expecting inventories to have declined last week.
Four analysts polled by Reuters estimated on average that US crude inventories fell by about 2.3 million barrels in the week to July 14.
Meanwhile, concerns over China’s deflating economy are building, as fears of declining demand in the world’s second-largest economy and oil consumer weigh down on oil prices.
China's gross domestic product (GDP) grew 6.3 percent year-on-year in the second quarter, compared with analyst forecasts of 7.3 percent, as its post-pandemic recovery lost momentum.
Lacklustre GDP data from China released on Monday "kept a cautious lid on prices with some reservations in its demand recovery," Jun Rong Yeap, a market strategist at IG in Singapore, told Reuters.
"Nevertheless, some traction from buyers has emerged lately, with prices breaking above its near-term consolidation pattern last week which may suggest some exhaustion in selling pressure, following the downbeat sentiments over the past one year," Yeap added.
Meanwhile, US shale oil production is expected to drop to nearly 9.40 million barrels per day in August, which would be the first monthly decline since December 2022, data from the Energy Information Administration showed on Monday.
