Oil futures remained almost unchanged early Tuesday, consolidating after the previous session’s pullback as investors assessed the demand outlook for China after the country’s leadership outlined its economic plans.
The price moves
-
Crude West Texas Intermediate CL00,
-0.20%
for April delivery fell 2 cents to $78.72 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. -
May Brent BRN00,
-0.08% BRNK24,
-0.08% ,
the global benchmark, remained unchanged at $82.89 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe.
Market drivers
China’s official growth target for 2024 is around 5%, Premier Li Qiang said in an annual report on Tuesday, as the country struggles to deal with a housing crisis. Li said the government plans to issue 1 trillion yuan (about $139 billion) in “ultra-long special treasury bonds” in 2024 and each of the next few years — a long-hoped-for extra promise of government spending to help support weak growth.
The government also plans to provide support to debt-strapped local governments facing “economic difficulties,” he said.
The growth target is considered “ambitious,” Ipek Ozkardeskaya, a senior analyst at Swissquote Bank, said in a note, noting that U.S. crude “failed to extend gains above $80 a barrel even after stimulus bets Chinese”.
Crude prices fell on Monday, failing to find support after OPEC+ extended voluntary production cuts by 2.2 million barrels a day in the second quarter.
“Now we should avoid an oversupply in the second quarter. However, an extension for another three months was already expected,” Carsten Fritsch, commodities analyst at Commerzbank, said in a note.
—Contributed by the Associated Press.