Benchmark oil prices are rising moderately on Wednesday morning, as investors assess US inflation data and await the weekly report on fuel stocks in the country.
The price of January futures for Brent on the London ICE Futures exchange at 7:10 a.m. is $82.7 per barrel, which is $0.23 (0.28%) higher than at the close of the previous session. On Tuesday, these contracts fell by 5 cents to $82.47 per barrel.
Quotes for December futures for WTI in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) by this time increased by $0.18 (0.23%) to $78.44 per barrel. At the end of the previous session, they remained unchanged at $78.26 per barrel.
The rate of growth of consumer prices (CPI) in the United States in October decreased to 3.2% in annual terms from 3.7% in September, the Labor Department reported. Core inflation (CPI Core), which excludes food and energy prices, slowed to 4% from 4.1% a month earlier. The consensus forecast of experts surveyed by Trading Economics envisaged a weakening of inflation to 3.3% and a continued growth rate of the CPI Core index at 4.1%.
Data on inflation dynamics is closely monitored by the Federal Reserve System (FRS) when making decisions on monetary policy.
Meanwhile, the day before, the International Energy Agency raised its forecast for global oil demand growth in 2023 by 113 thousand barrels per day (bpd) to 2.367 million bpd. Thus, the organization expects global demand to reach 101.96 million bpd this year.
Market participants are also assessing signals about changes in energy reserves in the United States.
According to the American Petroleum Institute (API), last week the US stocks increased by 1.34 million barrels. A week earlier, reserves jumped by 11.9 million barrels.
Official data from the Energy Ministry will be published at 16:30 on Wednesday, and in two weeks at once. Analysts surveyed by Trading Economics predict that they will show an increase in oil reserves by 1.8 million barrels.
