Oil prices advanced in Asia’s morning trade as traders weighed on OPEC’s output cuts alongside concerns about further interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve potentially hurting demand.
Brent crude futures rose 0.69% to $84.76 a barrel as of 10.24 A.M. Bangkok time, while the U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures gained 0.76% to $80.34 a barrel.
Investors are looking forward to key U.S. inflation data on Wednesday, as well as oil demand and supply data due this week, which will guide the Fed’s next move.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia analyst Vivek Dhar said in a daily note that Russia is still a “key country to watch” when trying to assess the severity of a supply interruption in the oil market.
Oil futures rose by over 5% since OPEC and its allies, including Russia, shocked the market last week by announcing another round of production cuts beginning in May.
Market information on U.S. crude stockpiles is expected on Tuesday. According to a Reuters poll of five industry experts, oil stockpiles are expected to drop by an average of 1.3 million barrels in the week ending April 7.
