Oil Rises With Focus on China’s Economy, OPEC+ Supply Meeting

Oil rose along with Asian equities on signs of a slow recovery in China’s economy, as traders look to Thursday’s OPEC+ meeting for further direction, Bloomberg reported.

Brent futures traded above $72 a barrel, following a 3% slump last week, after China’s factory activity showed tentative signs of recovery in the world’s biggest crude importer.

Meanwhile, OPEC+ pushed back its meeting on supply by four days. Traders will look for clues on future policy at the gathering, where the group is widely expected to delay a slight increase of production for a third time.

Oil has been trading in a range of less than $6 since mid-October, buffeted by geopolitical developments in the Middle East and Russia, the prospect of another Trump presidency and the outlook in China.

“We expect the plan to introduce more oil to the market to be postponed by another month or, more likely, three months,” said Arne Lohmann Rasmussen, chief analyst at A/S Global Risk Management.