Commodity Capsule: Brent crude oil edged higher; gold move little

Commodity Capsule: Oil edged higher, to hover in a tight range, for 3rd straight day on Wednesday after industry data showed US oil stocks grew less than expected.

The US Energy Department sharply cut its forecast for the country's oil output growth, easing concerns about potential oversupply.

Brent crude futures rose past $78 a barrel, and US West Texas Intermediate crude climbed to $73.50.

American Petroleum Institute reported that US crude stocks rose 670,000 barrels last week but below forecasts of a 1.9 million barrel build from analysts.

US government weekly data on oil inventories will be released on Wednesday.

For 2024, the US Energy Information Administration on Tuesday cut its outlook for domestic oil output growth by 120,000 barrels per day to 170,000 bpd, sharply lower than last year's output increase of 1.02 million bpd.

EIA forecast US production would not exceed the December 2023 record of more than 13.3 million barrels per day until February 2025.

Gold prices moved little on Wednesday but saw some relief as the dollar eased from three-month highs, although waning bets on early U.S. interest rate cuts capped gains for the yellow metal.

Bullion prices were battered by bets on higher-for-longer interest rates following hawkish comments from Federal Reserve officials.

The dollar fell slightly from three-month highs on Wednesday, the greenback was still sitting on strong gains so far in 2024.

Global gold futures expiring in April hovered around $2,050 an ounce.

Metals prices flitted within a narrow range on Wednesday as traders gauged a lack of fresh market-moving catalysts and lacklustre trading ahead of a long public holiday in China.

LME copper prices fell slightly hovering just around $8,400 a tonne on Wednesday in anticipation of more economic cues in China.

Red metal was nursing steep losses over the past week following a string of underwhelming purchasing managers index readings from China.

Inflation data for January, due on Thursday, is expected to offer more cues on China.

The softer US dollar lent some support for all the metals.

Although demand for metals was soft China is preparing for the Feb. 9-16 holiday to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

Codelco could see a rebound in output this year to 1.353 million tons, marking the start of a recovery in production.

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