OPEC+ Meeting Eyed

Crude futures are essentially flat in Asia-Pac hours; WTI up $0.01 from settlement levels at $60.56, while Brent is $0.06 higher at $64.20 – the benchmarks are holding declines from yesterday.

• Markets look ahead to the OPEC+ meeting on Thursday, the group are expected to maintain output cuts given signs in the last few weeks of the fragility of the oil rally. There are reports that Saudi Arabia has not yet decided its position on oil production quotas. The OPEC+ JMMC met ahead of the meetings and revised down oil demand, they now forecast that global demand will expand by 5.6m bpd this year, a 300k bpd reduction. The downward revision came after OPEC SecGen Barkindo warned the group must remain cautious.
• Elsewhere, data from API yesterday showed headline crude inventories rose again, adding 3.91m bbls. Downstream stockpile figures were more bullish, gasoline stocks fell 6.01m bbls while distillate stocks rose 2.6m bbls.
• There are positives though, in China PMI figures were strong while the IMF will upgrade growth forecasts next week.