Oil resumed its decline, after rising 3.0% yesterday, and falling 3.0% in the day before, in volatile year-end trading induced by thin volumes, and as a private sector survey for U.S. oil inventories showed an increase of about 3.0 million barrels, opposed to forecasts of no-change. U.S. West Texas Intermediary (WTI) crude futures dove 72 cents, or 1.91% to $37.15 a barrel. Brent crude futures underwent a more muted depreciation; losing 27 cents, or 0.70% to $37.35 a barrel, regaining thereafter their premium over U.S. crude after a week-long hiatus.
Asian shares shaved some their earlier gains in response to the oil decline, with Japan's Nikkei index up 0.33%. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index was solidly higher by 1.0%. Korea's KOSPI and India's Nifty relinquished all of their gains however; trading flat. China's CSI300 index tumbled 0.70%.
Wall Street closed with strong profits, led by technology profits after Alphabet (Google) and Amazon hit record highs. Dow Jones jumped 192 points, or 1.10% to 17,720. S&P 500 rose 21 points, or 1.06% to 2,078. Technology-focused NASDAQ surged 66 points, or 1.33% to 5,107, making it the biggest winner.
Dollar's index was largely flat, trading at 98.23. Dollar edged down 0.11% against the euro to 1.0935. Sterling rose by a similar percentage against the American currency to 1.4836. Dollar inched down 0.07% against the yen to 120.36 after two days of modest gains.
Gold futures are up two dollars, or 0.20% to $1,070 an ounce. Silver added 3 cents, or 0.25% to $13.96 an ounce. Copper trended lower, down 0.40% at $2.129 a pound, after surging to a six-week high yesterday at $2.147.
Awaited for release today, Spanish Flash CPI for December, forecast to rise 0.1% y/y after being negative for four consecutive months, which would be modestly positive for the euro.
From the U.S., the official survey for Crude Oil Inventories is forecast to show a decrease of 1.08M barrels for last week, but there's a high probability of missing the forecast and marking a rise in inventories as shown in the private sector survey, which would be negative for oil prices.