Oil prices inched up slightly in Asian morning trade on Wednesday as investors awaited the outcome of the U.S. Federal Reserve‘s June meeting, key economic data from China and government data on U.S. crude stockpiles. Brent crude futures were up 9 cents, or 0.1%, at $74.38 a barrel by 0340 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was at $69.43 a barrel, up 1 cent.
Both benchmarks climbed more than 3% on Tuesday on hopes of rising fuel demand after China‘s central bank lowered a short-term lending rate. “It seems that the short-term hot monies (speculators) are hesitant to bid prices higher due to impending key data and events such as China’s industrial production, retail sales, and the housing price index for May due tomorrow, as well as today FOMC’s latest dot-plot projections,” said Kelvin Wong, a senior market analyst at OANDA in Singapore.
