Oil prices finally move up into positive territory

Oil prices finally moved up to positive territory Wednesday, but saw only minimum increase in the Asian trade.

The Times of India reported that the US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for October increased 22 cents to $46.16, while Brent Crude went up 24 cents to $49.76 in October.

Crude futures for delivery in October traded at $46.15 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange that is a figure up $0.21 in the Globex electronic session. Meanwhile Market Watch reported that the West Texas Intermediate crude price in the New York Mercantile Exchange was at $45.41 a barrel, a decrease by 1.2%, or 52 cents. However, overall, oil prices went down by 14% so far in 2015, and are less than half the level they were at the previous year.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the spike in oil prices is caused by stronger sentiments from some of the major financial markets in the region. The turbulent Chinese equity markets were broadly higher, after the US stock markets rallied overnight. The Shanghai Composite Index increased by 1.7%.

Asian markets looked brighter as China's Ministry of Finance announced Wednesday that it would make stronger fiscal policy to stimulate growth in the country's economy. Some of the ways to boost growth are to give more funds for infrastructure projects and make tax cuts for small businesses.

Despite this small upward slope, traders and investors remain anxious with the volatility of oil prices brought by the Chinese economic rout and the excess supply of oil.

Investors will also be closely monitoring the weekly US stockpile figures from the American Petroleum Institute on Wednesday and at the US energy department on Thursday. The participants expect the stockpiles to increase again. Another major issue that worries investors is the fast deceleration in the demand of Asian crude as refineries slow down their operations amid declining margins, which has started to take place in Asian-Pacific and Middle Eastern countries.