Oil Prices Hold Steady While Markets Search For Direction

Oil prices remained fairly stable during Tuesday’s Asian session, with both Brent crude and U.S. WTI crude down 0.1 percent each. Brent crude traded at $55.94 per barrel, down 7 cents per barrel, while U.S. WTI crude traded at $53.17 per barrel, down 3 cents per barrel. Despite OPEC’s commitment to cut production and its members relative compliance, the U.S. International Energy Agency forecast U.S. shale output to increase by 1.4 barrels per day by 2022, a note which kept prices from rising. The IEA added that if the price of oil hits $80 per barrel, shale oil output could increase by 3 million barrels per day. Increasing needs and stability from emerging markets is also forecast to increase oil demand to as much as 104 million barrels per day by 2022, concluded the report.

Asian Markets Recover Slightly

After European markets and Wall Street suffered losses on Monday, Asian stocks showed signs of recovery on Tuesday with MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gaining nearly 0.5 percent after slipping early in the session. Australian shares gained 0.3 percent after the Reserve Bank of Australia held rates at the record low level of 1.50 percent on Tuesday. The announcement was in-line with expectations and it confirmed that the RBA feels comfortable with its growth and inflation targets.

The dollar index held steady on Tuesday morning at 101.60 .DXY after gaining a mere 0.1 percent on Monday. The dollar gained 0.1 percent against the yen to trade at 113.98, while the Australian dollar solidified 0.3 percent gains to trade at $0.7603 on Tuesday.