Investing.com - Oil prices slipped on Thursday in Asia after surging more than 8% in the previous session as markets reopened from the Christmas holiday.
Crude Oil WTI Futures for February delivery traded 1.0% lower to $46.14 a barrel at 11:20 AM ET (04:20 GMT) on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent Oil Futures for March delivery slipped 1.1% to $54.71 per barrel on London’s Intercontinental Exchange.
Oil prices surged on Wednesday after U.S. equities rebounded. White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett told reporters that U.S. President Donald Trump won’t try to fire the Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and that his job was "a hundred percent” safe.
Reports that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners would be willing to meet as needed to help manage the oil market were also cited as supporting the buying.
"It looks like there's some help for oil now before the year-end because the selloff on Christmas Eve was probably overdone," said Phil Flynn, a senior energy analyst at The Price Futures Group brokerage in Chicago. "But conversely, you can argue that this rebound is also overdone because we just don't know if the bears will return in force after this."
"I'm selling into this strength as I don't believe it will sustain," Tariq Zahir, an oil bear at Tyche Capital Advisors in New York, said.
Oil has fallen since earlier this month as investors expressed scepticism if the output cut by the OPEC and its allies earlier this month would be enough to balance supply and demand.