OIL: Crude Higher Today, December OPEC Meeting In Focus, EIA Data Later

Oil has posted modest gains during APAC trading today. Brent is 0.4% higher at $71.40/bbl, close to the intraday high, and WTI is up 0.6% to $67.60/bbl after a low of around $67.30. The USD has recovered to be down only slightly now.

• OPEC is due to meet on December 1 which will be monitored closely to see if the group delays its current plans to begin a gradual increase in output from December, which would push prices lower. Bloomberg says that traders are divided as to whether the current plan will go ahead.
• Westpac believes that Brent will trade in the high $60s in the not-too-distant future now that most of the geopolitical risk premium has unwound.
• Bloomberg reported that US oil inventories fell 600k barrels last week, according to people familiar with the API data. Gasoline stocks fell -300k and distillate 1.5mn. The official EIA data is out later today.
• Later the advanced release of US Q3 GDP and October ADP employment are out. GDP is forecast to rise 2.9% q/q saar, in line with Q2.
• The October European commission survey, preliminary Q3 German/French GDP, October German unemployment and October German/Spain CPIs print. The ECB’s Schnabel and BoC’s Macklem speak, and the UK budget is announced.