Oil prices tick up on supply woes but Fed rate hike bets cap gains

Oil prices ticked up on Wednesday on supply concerns, but expectations of another aggressive U.S. interest rate hike capped gains amid investor concerns it could lead to a recession and hurt fuel demand, Reuters reported.
Brent crude futures rose 11 cents, or 0.1%, to $90.73 a barrel by 0415 GMT after falling $1.38 the previous day.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $83.99 a barrel, up 5 cents, or 0.1%. The October delivery contract expired down $1.28 on Tuesday while the more active November contract lost $1.42.
“The bullish factor is always the undersupply issue that is caused by sanctions on Russia,” said Tina Teng, an analyst at CMC Markets. “Iran’s nuclear deal faced obstacles, which will not bring extra supply any time soon.”
The United States said that it did not expect a breakthrough on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal at this week’s U.N. General Assembly, reducing the prospects of a return of Iranian barrels to the international market. read more
Fed set for big rate hike as waters get choppy for world’s central banks
The Fed chief’s tone since then has become ardently hawkish, and, with the central bank’s preferred measure of inflation running more than three times its 2% target, another dose of tough talk is anticipated.
“Risks still skew toward higher terminal policy rates and we expect a relatively hawkish FOMC meeting,” Citi economists wrote on Tuesday.