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(Reuters) -Oil prices traded in a narrow range on Wednesday as investors stayed cautious ahead of a potential interest rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve and its projections for 2025, while a draw in U.S. crude inventories offered some support. The Fed is expected to cut rates by a quarter point, but to signal a cautious approach to loosening monetary policy next year. "Oil prices ought to see more of a reaction to the crude inventory draw seen in the API data overnight... however, such is the diverting power of central bank rate decisions that investors in all of the trading mediums are taking a very light touch to proceedings" said John Evans, analyst with oil broker PVM.

The implementation will improve merchandising, inventory management, product quality and efficiency while cutting waste.

(Reuters) -The U.S. dollar held firm on Wednesday before the Federal Reserve policy meeting later in the session which is expected to deliver a hawkish cut, trimming rates but suggesting less monetary easing ahead. Analysts recalled that the assumption that the Fed would reduce its level of 2025 easing had propped up the dollar recently, while markets kept pricing a 25 basis point rate cut. "We foresee a hawkish shift in the dot plot, consistent with the movement in market expectations since the last update in September," said David Doyle, head of economics at Macquarie.

US benchmark equity indexes were tracking in the green in Wednesday's premarket activity ahead of th

Brazil’s spirits market is forecast to see volumes grow by more than 4% a year up to the end of 2028, a new report says.

Your day-ahead look for Dec. 18, 2024

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Federal Reserve is expected to lower borrowing costs on Wednesday in what some observers are calling a "hawkish cut" set to be delivered alongside policymakers' updated interest rate outlooks and economic forecasts covering the first months of the incoming Trump administration. The anticipated quarter-percentage-point move would lower the U.S. central bank's benchmark policy rate to the 4.25%-4.50% range, a full percentage point below where it stood in September when it began easing the tight monetary policy used to counter a surge in inflation that began in 2021. How much further and how fast rates will fall next year remains increasingly uncertain with inflation still lodged above the Fed's 2% target, the economy growing faster than expected, and the prospect that President-elect Donald Trump's tariff, tax and immigration policies could change the economic landscape in unpredictable ways once he takes office in January.