Oil: Buyers Get Support From Reduced Oil Inventories

On Wednesday, December 15, oil trading ended with an increase in prices. A barrel of Brent rose in price by 1.56% to $ 74.33. The growth of quotations was facilitated by the general weakening of the dollar in the global foreign exchange market, as well as the reduction in oil reserves in the United States.

Oil reserves in the country for the week ended December 10 decreased by 4.6 million barrels (the forecast was -2.1 million). Gasoline stocks in the United States decreased by 0.7 million barrels, to 218.6 million barrels (forecast was +0.7 million barrels), distillate stocks - by 2.9 million barrels, to 123.8 million barrels (forecast was +1 , 6 million barrels). Oil production in the country for the week remained at around 11.7 million barrels per day.

The US Federal Reserve Open Market Committee left the federal funds rate in the range of 0.00-0.25%, and also increased the rate of reduction of the asset purchase program to $ 30 billion from $ 15 billion a month. The decision coincided with market expectations, therefore, after the press conference by J. Powell, profit-taking on long positions in the dollar began.

On Thursday, December 16, at the auctions in Asia, the dollar is trading slightly higher. Major dollar pairs are correcting after the evening rally. Brent crude oil costs $ 74.38 per barrel. Buyers plan to bring the price back to the $ 75.65 level. If the price remains trading below 75.20 in the American session, sellers may become more active in order to drive the rate back to $ 72.55 by the weekend (support for the last two days).