Oil steadies after price jump; investors wait on OPEC meetings

Oil prices edged lower in muted trading on Thursday ahead of the start of OPEC meetings later in the day, steadying after the previous session's steep gains on a sharp drop in US crude inventories and expectations of more output cuts.

Brent crude futures dipped 10 cents, or 0.2%, to $62.90 a barrel by 0112 GMT. Brent surged 3.6% on Wednesday.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 22 cents, or 0.4%, to $58.21 a barrel. They settled up 4.2% on Wednesday.

Prices are now back roughly to the levels of a week ago, before they plunged on a lack of progress on resolving a 17-month-old Sino-US trade war that has hit global growth and demand for oil.

Investor attention has switched to meetings of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies that start later on Thursday, and the possibility of more production cuts.

OPEC members meet in Vienna on Thursday and are then joined by Russia and the other members of the wider grouping on Friday.