©Reuters. An oil pump in the US state of Texas in a photo from the Reuters archive.
Sonali said
MELBOURNE (Reuters) – It moved higher in early trading on Tuesday, buoyed by dollar weakness and a U.S. plan to rebuild its strategic reserves, but gains were limited by uncertainty about the impact of rising cases of COVID-19 in China, the world’s largest oil importer.
Crude oil futures were up 61 cents, or 0.8%, to $80.40 a barrel by 01:24 GMT.
US West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 65 cents, or 0.9%, to $75.84 a barrel, after rising 90 cents in the previous session.
The market received support from the US plan announced last week to buy up to three million barrels of oil for the strategic reserve, after the US released 180 million barrels of storage this year, which is a record.
A weaker US dollar has also supported prices as it makes oil cheaper for holders of other currencies. It was about 104.7.
But for prices to rise further, analysts said there should be clear signs of rising demand.
“The outlook for oil demand will be key to how high crude prices are and this may be hard to figure out as we see mixed signals as lockdown restrictions are lifted in China,” OANDA analyst Edward Moya said. in a Note.
On Tuesday, China saw a jump in new confirmed cases of the coronavirus, to 2,722 on Dec. 19, from 1,995 the day before. However, there is growing skepticism that the official tally captures the true number of infections, with anecdotal evidence suggesting the disease is spreading in cities.
(Prepared by Ahmed Maher for the Arab Bulletin)
