Crude Oil
West Texas Intermediate and Brent oil prices stabilized on Wednesday, one day after posting their worst daily loss in three years amid concerns over the outlook for global demand. Crude prices stabilize after Tuesday's 4% plunge Crude oil futures trade near multi-month lows ahead of U.S. supply data. Crude's losses came after the International Energy Agency cut its forecast for global oil demand for the fourth month in a row on Tuesday. The agency said it now expected global oil demand for 2014 to total 92.4 million barrels a day, down 200,000 barrels per day from its September report, amid ample global supplies and slowing demand in the U.S., China and Europe. Global supplies have far outpaced demand in recent months, sparking speculation among traders about whether the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries would lower production to prop up prices.
Gold
Gold futures rose on Wednesday on safe-haven demand after weak U.S. indicators sent U.S. stocks and the dollar dropping earlier. Gold gains as dollar, U.S. stocks drop on soft data Gold rises as soft U.S. data push down dollar, U.S. stocks. The Census Bureau reported earlier that U.S. retail sales fell 0.3% last month, exceeding forecasts for a 0.1% decline, after expanding 0.6% in August. Core retail sales, which exclude motor vehicles and parts, dropped 0.2% in September, defying expectations for a 0.3% gain, after rising 0.3% the previous month. A separate report showed that U.S. producer price inflation slipped 0.1% in September, disappointing expectations for a 0.1% rise, after a flat reading in August. September's year-on-year PPI rose 1.6%, missing expectations for a 1.8% gain. Elsewhere, the Federal Reserve of New York reported that its manufacturing index tumbled to a six-month low of 6.2 in October from 27.5 in September. Analysts had expected the index to tick down to 25.5 this month.
