Dollar Pushes Oil Lower, U.S. Inventory Report Awaited


   
Barani Krishnan
DTN Refined Fuels Market Reporter

   SECAUCUS, NJ (DTN) -- Crude futures fell Tuesday (11/04) as a rallying 
dollar weighed on commodity markets. Benchmark prices briefly fell beneath 
critical thresholds despite OPEC+ efforts to stabilize supply.

   The NYMEX WTI futures contract for December delivery settled down $0.49 at 
$60.56 bbl, after dipping to $59.94 during the session -- breaking below the 
key $60 mark.

   ICE Brent for December delivery settled down $0.45 at $64.44 bbl, with the 
session low of $63.82 registering well beneath the key $65 level.

   Refined products bucked the lower trend in crude. Front-month ULSD futures 
rose $0.0342 to $2.4395 gallon while November RBOB gasoline futures fell 
$0.0052 to $1.9213 gallon.

   The U.S. Dollar Index rose 0.328 points to 100.035 against a basket of 
foreign currencies, after a two-month high at 100.07 -- a move that depressed 
prices across commodity markets.

   The dollar has witnessed a resurgence since U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman  
Jerome Powell indicated last week that the central bank could skip an interest 
rate cut in December, after back-to-back quarter-percentage point reductions in 
October and September.

   Pressure on crude prices have mounted over the last three months amid rising 
production, with U.S. output, particularly, hitting an all-time high of 13.8 
million bpd in August.

   Concerns about elevated supplies persisted this week even after eight OPEC+ 
countries committed to pausing planned production hikes for the first quarter 
of 2026.

   The group -- Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, 
Kazakhstan, Algeria and Oman -- is still set to increase December output by 
137,000 barrels per day as part of a gradual rollback of voluntary output cuts 
of 1.65 million bpd first announced in April 2023.

   Market participants were, meanwhile, awaiting the American Petroleum 
Institute's 4:30 p.m. ET release of oil inventory numbers for the week ended 
October 31. It will be the first U.S. inventory report since the Energy 
Information Administration reported a second consecutive week of declines in 
commercial crude stockpiles for the week ended October 24.




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