Oil prices were mixed Tuesday before a meeting of the Federal Reserve which could reveal more stimulus measures aimed at boosting the US economy, which is also the world’s biggest consumer of crude.
Brent North Sea crude for September delivery dipped five cents to $106.15 a barrel in London midday deals. New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for September, gained 25 cents to $90.03 a barrel. Crude markets were expecting additional stimulus to be agreed during the two-day US Federal Reserve meeting which starts Tuesday as well as at a gathering of the European Central Bank (ECB) on Thursday, analysts said.
“Market players are holding back ahead of the central bank meetings later this week,” said Commerzbank commodities analyst Carsten Fritsch. The Fed gathering comes after the US government last week said that growth in the United States — the world’s biggest economy — slowed to 1.5 percent in the second quarter from 2.0 percent in the first three months of 2011.
Markets were tempering their optimism about fresh action with “worries that expected stimulus from the United States and Europe may fail to lift their economies,” Phillip Futures stated in a commentary.
