WTI and Brent sit more than $1.00 below their...>

OIL: WTI and Brent sit more than $1.00 below their respective settlement levels,

building on yesterday's losses and perhaps showing a little more sensitivity

than equities re: the worsening Sino-U.S. relations, with the move garnering

extra steam on the back of the latest API inventory estimates, which reportedly

revealed a surprise headline build in crude inventory stocks (which was large in

outright terms), coupled with larger than expected builds in both the distillate

and gasoline figures.

- Elsewhere, Wednesday saw the Kremlin note that Russian President Putin and

Saudi Crown Prince MbS agreed on further "close coordination" on oil production

limits, via a phone call

- Also worth remembering that a degree of bullish exhaustion could be creeping

in, given the bounce from recent lows, and as we have noted previously, real

signs of demand/a bounce in economic activity may be needed to drive prices

notably higher from here.

- DoE inventory data headlines on Thursday.