Gold Prices Fall Amid Rate Jitters; Copper Steady as China Stimulus Eyed 
Both Brent and WTI is moving lower despite geopolitical tensions surrounding the Middle East thanks to increasing supplies from OPEC, Russia, and the United States. WTI is currently trading at $65.9 per barrel and Brent at $9.7 per barrel premium to WTI.
Key factors at play in the crude oil market –
- OPEC’s oil output in September rose by 132,000 barrels to 32.8 million barrels per day. Iran’s production is showing signs of weakness amid sanctions.
- Saudi Arabia has finally confirmed amid an International outcry that Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
- Trump is pressing Saudi Arabia to increase oil production by almost 2 million barrels per day. Saudi Arabia is likely to comply once the supplies from Iran starts drying up due to sanctions by the U.S.
- The U.S. reportedly asked allies to stop importing Iranian oil from November this year. Secretary Mike Pompeo has visited India and others to persuade, which is the biggest buyer of Iranian crude oil after China. So far, both China and India have announced that they would continue to import Iranian crude.
- EU, alongside Iran, Russia, and China have created a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to bypass the U.S. sanctions for companies operating in Iran.
- Venezuela in crisis as oil production declined to 1.197 million barrels per day in September.
- EIA projects U.S. crude production to increase to 12 million barrels per day by end of 2019 and U.S. would become the single largest producer by next five years.
- Current U.S production at 10.9 million barrels per day.
- API reported a major build of 5.69 million barrels of crude oil. Gasoline saw a draw of 3.5 million barrels.
Today’s inventory report from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) will be released at 14:30 GMT.
