Investing.com – Oil prices pushed higher on Wednesday, with the U.S. benchmark bouncing back after reaching its lowest level since June 2017 in a bruising pre-Christmas session on Monday.
was up 44 cents, or roughly 1%, at $42.97 a barrel by 8:50AM ET (13:50 GMT) on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It fell to a 17-month low of $42.36 on Monday, before ending the day down 6.7%.
Meanwhile, international futures tacked on 4 cents to $50.81 a barrel.
With many traders out for the holidays, volumes are expected to be thinner and moves could be exaggerated.
Crude oil has lost over a third of its value since October in what has become one of the biggest declines since a price collapse in 2014, with surging supply and the specter of faltering demand scaring off investors.
With less than a week to the end of 2018, WTI remains down about 29% this year, while Brent is down about 24% on the year, as swelling inventories depressed sentiment.
Saudi-led OPEC and its non-member allies led by Russia agreed in early December to collectively cut production by a total of 1.2 million barrels a day during the first six months of 2019 in an effort to stave off a global glut in supplies.
But the cuts will not happen until next month.
In other energy trading, dipped 0.4% to $1.2536 a gallon. It ended 5.3% lower at $1.2488 a gallon on Monday, its lowest settlement since Feb. 29, 2016.
sank 3% to $3.322 per million British thermal units, adding to a 9.2% drop posted in the shortened Christmas Eve session on Monday.
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Source: Investing.com
