Oil Futures Down Modestly as Investors Await News

Oil futures fell modestly by midday trading Tuesday in Asia, following muted action a day earlier as investors continued to weigh the supply-and-demand picture.

--December light, sweet crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange was recently down 0.2% at $56.63 a barrel in the Globex training session. January Brent eased 0.3% to $62.97.

--On watch is weekly U.S. inventory data later Tuesday from the American Petroleum Institute and developments in the run-up to month-end meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. At that gathering, ongoing production cap are expected to be extended again.

--Strong refinery margins in the U.S. and fuel-production outages in Mexico, the largest importer of American oil, will encourage refiners to delay scheduled maintenance, says BMI Research. That should continue pushing down U.S. stockpiles, it adds.

Write to Biman Mukherji at biman.mukherji@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 13, 2017 23:46 ET (04:46 GMT)