By Zhang Mengying
Investing.com – Oil was down on Friday morning in Asia as fears of slower demand from slowing U.S. economic growth and supply concerns weighed on the market.
Brent oil futures inched down 0.09% to $109.94 by 12:46 AM ET (4:46 AM GMT) and crude oil WTI futures gained 0.14% to $104.42.
Crude futures entered into sell mode following disappointing U.S. manufacturing and services purchasing managers indexes (PMI), along with a downswing in Germany’s manufacturing data, SPI Asset Management managing partner Stephen Innes told Reuters.
“Under these conditions, higher crude oil prices will become super sensitive to any perceived or otherwise increased supply inputs,” Innes said, noting signs of Russian crude hitting the oil complex and mounting pressure on OPEC to boost output.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies (OPEC+) producers including Russia will likely stick to a plan to increase output by 648,000 barrels a day in August, which is hoping to bring down crude prices as U.S. President Joe Biden plans to visit Saudi Arabia, according to Reuters.
However, the block has struggled to meet the monthly increase targets because of lacking investment in oil fields by some OPEC members and losses in Russian output.
Wednesday’s U.S. crude supply data from the American Petroleum Institute showed a build of 5.607 million barrels for the week ended June 17.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s weekly oil data will be delayed until at least next week due to systems issues.