By Paul Carsten
LONDON (Reuters) -Oil prices were broadly flat on Thursday as investors waited on developments in the Middle East, the release of official U.S. oil inventory data and details on China’s stimulus plans.
Brent crude futures were down 4 cents to $74.18 a barrel at 1309 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were at $70.37 a barrel, down 2 cents.
Both benchmarks settled down on Wednesday, closing at their lowest levels since Oct. 2 for a second day in a row, after OPEC and the International Energy Agency cut demand forecasts for 2024 and 2025.
Prices have also fallen as fears eased that a retaliatory attack by Israel on Iran for the latter’s Oct. 1 missile strike could disrupt oil supplies, though uncertainty remains over how the conflict in the Middle East will develop.
“The country’s forthcoming retaliatory measures against Iran are still not clear,” said John Evans of oil broker PVM.
He added that the Middle East “will certainly provide enough reason to move oil prices again soon enough and investors today will also be preoccupied with an abundance of financial data”.
Among that data are U.S. oil inventories. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) will release its official government data at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT).
The American Petroleum Institute’s Wednesday figures showed crude and fuel stocks fell last week, market sources said, against expectations of a build-up in crude stockpiles. [EIA/S]
“Any signs of weak demand in EIA’s weekly inventory report could put further downward pressure on oil prices,” ANZ analysts said.
Meanwhile, the European Central Bank cut interest rates for the third time this year on Thursday, indicating that inflation in the euro zone is now increasingly under control and the economic outlook has worsened.
That decision is expected to boost oil prices as it makes borrowing cheaper, potentially boosting demand.
Investors are also waiting for further details from Beijing on broad plans announced on Oct. 12 to revive its ailing economy, including efforts to shore up its ailing property market.
(Reporting by Paul Carsten and Ahmad Ghaddar in London and Florence Tan and Emily Chow; Editing by Jamie Freed, Mark Potter and Daren Butler)
