By Barani Krishnan

The U.S. crude price dropped for the first time since Wednesday, but it remained well above the $80/barrel mark. This was due to the wait for inventory data, which may show an additional weekly rise.

Another sign of determination was the refusal by oil bulls to permit any significant drop in oil prices despite OPEC cutting its global demand growth forecast for 2021. Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that he didn’t want to see oil prices skyrocket, even though he suggested $100 a barrel as a possibility.

U.S. crude’s benchmark settled down 20 cents, or 0.25%, at $80.44 per barrel. WTI gained over 4% during the four days preceding trade.

Brent-traded crude oil, which is the international benchmark for oil, closed at $83.18, a decrease of 24 cents or 0.3%. It was Brent’s second straight decline after a three-day winning streak that netted more than 3%.

At 4:30 PM ET (23:30 GMT), The American Petroleum Institute will publish a snapshot of U.S. crude and gasoline stockpiles for week ended October 8. These numbers are an indicator of official weekly inventory data from the EIA (U.S. Energy Information Administration) due to be released on Thursday. 

Analysts tracked by Investing.com have forecast that rose by 702,000 barrels last week, on top of the previous week’s build of 2.35 million.

According to forecasts, inventories are expected to fall by 83,000 barrels following the increase in 3.26 million over the past week.

Stockpiles of , which include diesel and , are expected to have fallen by 933,000 barrels, extending the previous week’s slide of 396,000.

Oil prices tend to follow economic growth closely, but the recent rally in crude oil is totally out of line with the inflationary burden that economies have experienced since the 18-months of severe hardship brought on by the coronavirus epidemic. 

The much-anticipated tapering of the Federal Reserve’s long-running Covid-19 economic stimulus could start by November or December and conclude by the middle of next year, minutes from the latest monthly meeting of the central bank’s ​​policy-making committee said Wednesday.

In its Tuesday World Economic Outlook, the IMF stated that while growth momentum has declined, uncertainty has increased.  IMF worries that surging commodity prices may force central bank to tighten cycles which could cause selloffs in global equity markets.