Oil prices were little changed in early Asia trade on Thursday as investors weighed demand concerns over a global economic slowdown against an expected fall in supply from Saudi output cuts. Brent crude futures dipped 1 cent at $76.94 a barrel at 0110 GMT, while the U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 5 cents at $72.58 a barrel.
Both benchmarks settled up by about 1% on Wednesday, supported by Saudi Arabia‘s plans for deep output cuts, though price gains remain capped by rising U.S. fuel stocks and weak Chinese export data. “We considered substantially lowering our oil price deck in the absence of OPEC+ action last Sunday, but even a 1 million barrel/day cut looks unlikely to underpin a sustainable price increase,” Citi analysts said on Thursday.
