Investing.com - Crude oil prices traded mixed in early Asia on Thursday as the dollar took a hit after President-elect Donald Trump's first press conference since winning the presidency failed to provide fine details on economic policy and with data on U.S. stockpiles up more than expected weighing on sentiment.
A weaker dollar makes crude denominated in greenbacks cheaper for major importers like China and India.
On London's ICE, Brent futures were last quoted up 0.14% to $55.28 a barrel, while U.S. crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 0.23% to $52.25 a barrel.
A bigger-than-expected 4.1 million barrel overall U.S. inventory build in the U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA) petroleum report hit sentiment early on, but the weaker dollar dominated trade with the U.S. dollar index down 0.30 percent to 101.70 on Wednesday.
Overnight, reports of Saudi supply cuts pushed the price of oil higher by more than 3% today on world markets, demonstrating to some that the OPEC production deal is proceeding apace as planned.
Higher shale production in the U.S. is also seen as a pricing factor in the market, one that mitigates the OPEC cuts.