WTI & Brent sit ~$0.20 & ~$0.10 below their.....>

OIL: WTI & Brent sit ~$0.20 & ~$0.10 below their respective settlement levels.

This comes after both metrics added over $2.00 Wednesday, as trade war headlines

& hopes of deeper production cuts from OPEC+ came to the fore, although some

newswire sources were still cautious ahead of the OPEC/OPEC+ gatherings that are

scheduled over the next couple of days. Late Wednesday saw the WSJ write "Saudi

Arabia is threatening to boost oil production unilaterally if some OPEC nations

continue to defy the group's output curbs, cartel officials said." Elsewhere,

the FT suggested that "Saudi Arabia is pushing OPEC and its allies to announce a

deeper oil production cut as the group meets in Vienna, in a bid to prop up

prices ahead of a potential glut in supplies next year." Remember, the Aramco

IPO is of paramount importance to Saudi, and a healthy oil price would likely

support the stock during its early days of trading (results of the bookbuild are

set to be announced later today).

- Elsewhere, Weds saw a larger than exp. drawdown for headline crude stocks in

this week's DoE inventory data, similar to what was reported in Tuesday's APIs,

although larger than exp. builds in distillate & gasoline stocks were seen.