Crude oil futures steady on lack of fresh drivers

Crude oil futures were steady in Asian mid-morning trade Friday amid a lack of fresh market drivers, as the Phase 1 signing of the US-China trade deal has been priced in.

At 11:02 am Singapore time (0302 GMT), front-month March ICE Brent crude futures rose 3 cents/b (0.05%) from Thursday's settle at $64.65/b, while the NYMEX February light sweet crude contract climbed 2 cents/b (0.03%) at $58.54/b.

"Crude oil prices continue to stabilise, with Brent prices having found support at around the $64.50/b since the start of this week," OCBC analysts said in a note Friday morning.

"Prices did not rise materially despite the signing of the phase one trade deal the day before, suggesting that much of the optimism has already been priced into the oil market," they added.

Under the Phase 1 deal signed Wednesday, China will purchase $50 billion worth of US energy products over the next two years.

While this has lifted sentiment to some extent, the potential delay in tariff cuts continued to weighed on market sentiment.

Meanwhile, the US Senate has approved a new North American trade deal with Canada and Mexico Thursday. Some analysts said that this could support growth.

"Oil rose more than 1% on Thursday, as progress on another major trade deal fed optimism that energy demand will grow in 2020," UOB analysts said Friday.

As of 0302 GMT, the US Dollar Index was down 0.01% at 97.055.