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Oil prices stay in narrow range ahead of OPEC meeting (Brent: $44.8)

At the summit on Friday, OPEC will be discussing a "technical" increase of its output when it most likely welcomes the return of Indonesia as member of the organization. Indonesia is currently a net oil importer with a production of around 900,000 barrels per day. Current official output ceiling is 30 mio. barrels per day, but for most months this year, this ceiling has been broken.

The September U.S. oil production dropped for the third month in a row to 9.326 mio. barrels per day (down 20,000 bpd from August) despite the recent steady drop in oil rigs. Tonight, the weekly oil stock data from the American Petroleum Institute will be published ahead of the official report from the EIA - consensus is draw in crude and distillates, build in gasoline inventories.

Economic Chinese data overnight came out mixed with November factory activity at 3-year-low 49.6 (consensus 49.8), private-sector Caixin Manufacturing PMI at 48.6 (consensus 48.3), indicating that the world’s second-largest consumer is still struggling to keep on growth track.