Crude earnings in the wake of the Fed announcements

Argon futures closed trading with a positive sign, after announcements of the US Federal Reserve.

World benchmark British Brent crude for February delivery was up 0.24% at $ 73.88 a barrel, recovering from a small loss on Tuesday.

West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery was up 0.2% at $ 70.87 a barrel.

Earlier in the day, both contracts were negative because of concerns about growing signs that rising crude supply would outstrip demand next year, as well as the World Health Organization (WHO) saying vaccines for COVID-19 may be less effective than the Omicron variant.

Norway earlier this week tightened restrictions to halt the spread of Omicron.

The WHO said on Wednesday that preliminary data showed that vaccines may be less effective against the infection and transmission associated with the Omicron variant, which also carries a higher risk of re-infection.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Tuesday that an increase in COVID-19 cases with the appearance of the Omicron variant would reduce global demand for oil at a time when crude production is set to rise, especially in the United States, with supply be expected to exceed demand by at least the end of next year.

In contrast, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on Monday raised its forecasts for global oil demand for the first quarter of 2022.

At the same time, industry data showed that US crude stocks last week did not decline as expected. Data from the American Petroleum Institute showed that US crude inventories fell by 815,000 barrels in the week ended December 10, according to market sources, compared with a drop of 2.1 million barrels expected by 10 analysts in a Reuters poll.