OPEC haggling keeps the oil market on edge Mon 4 Jan 2021 13:37:07 GMT

Crude unchanged after earlier jump

Crude unchanged after earlier jump
Brent hit $53.33 and WTI rose to $49.83 earlier but both have given back about $1.40 and are unchanged on the day.
OPEC+ is meeting today to decide whether to stick with the plan of returning another 500,000 barrels per day of production to the market in light of fresh lockdowns and the virus surge.
One report, citing a  source close to the talks said just before today’s meeting that Russia and UAE are insisting on the 500 thousand bpd increase in production but Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Algeria are pushing to leave production unchanged.
The baseline in the market is for an increase but another report says there is “lots of chatter” about keeping current production levels.
In the bigger picture, 26 of the 29 commodities in the CRB index are higher today with coffee, aluminum and nickel as the only laggards. On top are silver and natural gas.