Oil prices fell on Wednesday, as the market waits for U.S.-China trade talks to be held this weekend.
Brent crude futures fell 24 cents U.S. a barrel, or 0.39%, to $61.91 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was up 24 cents, or 0.41%, at $58.85 a barrel.
The U.S. and China are due to meet in Switzerland. The trade talks come after weeks of escalating tensions that have seen duties on goods imports between the world’s two largest economies soar well beyond 100%.
Both benchmarks plunged to four-year lows this week after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies, known as OPEC+, decided to speed up output increases, stoking fears of oversupply at a time when U.S. tariffs have increased concerns about demand.
Still, some U.S. producers have signaled that they would cut spending, cautioning that the country’s oil output may have peaked, which is also contributing to the uptick in the market, analysts said.
U.S. government data on stockpiles was due at 10:30 a.m. ET. Analysts polled by Reuters expect, on average, an 800,000-barrel decline in U.S. crude oil stocks for last week.
Crude stocks fell by 4.5 million barrels in the week ended May 2, market sources said, citing American Petroleum Institute figures on Tuesday.
