According to predictions, the Federal Reserve announced a rate cut on Wednesday at the close of its meeting in a move that represents the first time the Fed has cut interest rates since the COVID-19 pandemic. The Fed has lowered its key rate to 4.8% from the two-decade high of 5.3%.

More rate cuts are now likely on the books, with the Federal Reserve signaling the possibility of two additional 25 basis point rate cuts by the end of this year, in November and December. The Fed also projects four cuts in 2025 and two in 2026. U.S. interest cuts have boosted risk sentiment, weakened the dollar, and provided support to crude prices this week.

Israel’s intelligence service planted explosives in several thousand pagers that Hezbollah had ordered from Taiwan, Reuters has reported in the wake of deadly pager explosions that killed nine in Lebanon earlier this week.
Among those injured in the Tuesday terrorist explosions was Iran’s envoy to Lebanon, which might prompt another threat from Iran to Israel in what would be one more bullish factor for oil amid a scarcity of bullish factors.

China’s slowing economy also weighed on market sentiment, with refinery output in China slowing for a fifth month in August and industrial output growth hitting a five-month low.
Oil prices also got support from U.S. crude oil inventories, which fell to the lowest in 12 months last week, per the Energy Information Administration’s weekly petroleum status report.
So far this year, crude oil inventories are 10.9 million barrels under where they were at the start of the year, according to API data.

Russia’s total exports of refined oil products by sea averaged about 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) between September 1 and 15, according to the data compiled by Bloomberg. This average volume was nearly 10% higher in the first half of September compared to the month of August.