Oil changes course ahead of Jackson Hole Symposium

Oil prices halted its downward spiral and turned positive in early Europe, with markets looking to take profits off the table ahead of the highly-influential Jackson Hole event.

Oil: Bears take a breather

Currently, both crude benchmarks recover losses and peek into the green zone, with Brent around $ 49.10, while WTI nears 47 levels. Oil prices edged slightly higher this session, as the bears consolidate the heavy losses booked yesterday after the EIA crude inventory data revealed a build in the US crude reserves by 2.501 million barrels for the week of August 19, following a 2.508 million barrel drop the week before.

On Tuesday, the API report also showed inventories increasing by 4.5 million barrels in the week ending August 19, heavily missing the anticipation of a 455,000 barrel drop.

Moreover, persistent broad based US dollar strength also weighed down on the black gold a day before. A stronger greenback makes dollar denominated commodities more expensive for the buyers in other currencies.

Looking ahead, the US macro releases, Jackson Hole Symposium, Yellen’s speech and US rigs count data due later in the upcoming sessions are likely to grab a lot of eyeballs, and are likely to have significant impact on oil prices.