By Colleen Howe
BEIJING (Reuters) -Oil prices were steady in Asian trading on Wednesday, holding on to sanctions-driven gains from the previous session as the market looked ahead to an OPEC+ meeting over the weekend.
Brent crude ticked down 1 cent, or 0.01%, to $69.13 a barrel by 0032 GMT.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude rose 4 cents or 0.06% to $65.63 a barrel.
Oil had settled up more than 1% in the previous trading session after the U.S. imposed new sanctions on a network of shipping companies and vessels led by an Iraqi-Kittitian businessman for smuggling Iranian oil disguised as Iraqi oil.
Also supporting prices, U.S. crude oil stockpiles were expected to have fallen last week, along with distillate and gasoline inventories, a preliminary Reuters poll showed on Tuesday.
Three analysts polled by Reuters ahead of weekly inventory data estimated on average that crude inventories fell by about 3.4 million barrels in the week to August 29.
But soft economic data kept prices capped. U.S. manufacturing contracted for a sixth straight month as President Donald Trump’s tariffs hit business confidence and economic activity, weighing on the demand outlook for oil.
The market was waiting for the results of a meeting of eight members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies on September 7. Analysts say the group is unlikely to make further changes to production for now.
Also on Wednesday morning, Beijing holds its largest-ever military parade to mark 80 years since Japan’s defeat at the end of World War Two, with China’s leader Xi Jinping taking centre stage flanked by Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
The event follows the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit from August 31 to September 1, in which China put forward its vision for a new global security and economic order in a direct challenge to the U.S.
Analysts have said that could push Trump to react with more secondary sanctions.
(Reporting by Colleen HoweEditing by Shri Navaratnam)
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