LONDON, Oct 26 (Reuters) – Oil prices fell on Thursday after a rise in U.S. crude stockpiles and a climb in the dollar index, giving up some ground gained a day earlier when prices jumped on fears of a broader conflict in the Middle East.
Brent crude futures declined by 80 cents, or 0.9%, to $89.33 a barrel at 1010 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures eased 91 cents, or 1.1%, to $84.48 a barrel.
The benchmark oil contracts had settled nearly 2% higher on Wednesday but fell back after the Wall Street Journal reported that Israel has agreed to delay an expected invasion of Gaza for now.
“The movements of oil markets are primarily involved with the Hamas-Israel war,” said Tina Teng, markets analyst at CMC.
U.S. crude inventories also rose in the latest week, indicating weak demand.
Inventories (USOILC=ECI) climbed by 1.4 million barrels to 421.1 million barrels, according to the Energy Information Administration, exceeding a 240,000-barrel gain expected by analysts from a Reuters poll.
Refinery crude runs in the U.S. fell by 207,000 barrels per day, while refinery utilisation rates also edged lower by 0.5 percentage point to 85.6% of total capacity, EIA data showed.
Macroeconomic concerns continued to weigh on the outlook for oil demand after a surprise downturn this month in euro zone business activity data.
“Though with no clear signs the war will spiral, attention is returning to volatile swings in the U.S. bond market and the broader fragile state of the world economy, that is unsettling investors,” MUFG analyst Ehsan Khoman said.
The European Central Bank (ECB) will likely keep interest rates unchanged at a record high when it meets later on Thursday, snapping a 15-month streak of hikes, but may discuss a quicker reduction of its oversized portfolio of government debt as it battles still excessive inflation.
TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA) on Thursday said fuel demand growth this year of about 2 million barrel per day (bpd) was driven by emerging countries, notably due to a recovery in the aviation sector and demand from China’s petrochemical industry.
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