London — Crude oil futures remained steady Thursday during the European morning trading session following the release of bearish Energy Information Administration data Wednesday and news that the US and China will endeavor to resolve their trade dispute that has rocked the market over the last few weeks.
At 0938 GMT, ICE October Brent crude futures rose 15 cents/b from Wednesday's settle to $70.91/b, while the NYMEX September light sweet crude contract edged up by 10 cents/b to $65.11/b.
The market experienced jitters Wednesday following the release of the US EIA data, which showed a larger-than-expected build in US crude inventories due to a sharp rise in crude imports to Cushing, where stockpiles have risen by 6.81 million barrels for the week ended August 10.
This was against analysts expectations of a 1.7 million barrel draw and also exceeded the data released by the American Petroleum Institute Tuesday.
Crude markets remained steady Thursday despite the bearish news as Iranian exports are expected to fall on the implementation of US sanctions in November, acting as a balancing factor for the market.
"The crude oil market is on tender hopes of global developments in other commodity and financial markets, and that was the main driver of lower crude oil prices," Carsten Fritsch an Analyst at Commerzbank told S&P Global Platts Thursday morning. "In fact the downward pull in crude oil was modest, compared to the slump in base metals and stock markets, and the dollar move was accelerated after the very bearish inventory data."
Elsewhere, tensions between the US and China could begin to settle down following an announcement by China's commerce ministry Thursday on the resumption of trade talks between the two countries later this month, analysts said.
Markets found support in the news that the vice minister of commerce, Wang Shouwen, would lead China's delegation to meet Under Secretary of the US Treasury David Malpass to discuss economic and trade issues between China and the US.
Market watchers are closely following the impact on the dollar as the Turkish lira crisis continues to weaken, posing a threat to imports. "Unless we get another slump in other broader commodity markets then I expect we will stay around this $70/b level," Fritsch said.
