NYMEX, Brent crude prices mixed as investors eye U.S. presidential vote

Investing.com - Investing.com - U.S. Crude oil prices traded in small gains and losses on Wednesday and Brent gained in Asia as investors awaited U.S. presidential election results and looked further ahead to U.S. industry inventory estimates.
Crude oil for December delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange was quoted down flat at $44.98 a barrel. Brent oil for January delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London rose 0.33% to $46.05 a barrel.
Market players are also looking ahead to weekly data from the U.S. on stockpiles of crude and refined products. Industry group the American Petroleum Institute is due to release its weekly report at 4:30PM ET (20:30GMT) later on Tuesday. Official data from the Energy Information Administration will be released Wednesday.
Exit polls and trend results filtered out on Tuesday evening in the U.S., but key battleground states remained too close to call. Results will be declared state by state. If the outcome is clear, the television networks are expected to make their official call at 11:00PM ET (04:00 GMT Wednesday).
Overnight, oil prices were lower during North American hours on Tuesday, as markets were jittery before the results of the U.S. presidential election.
Global financial markets were rattled last week by signs the U.S. presidential election race between Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump was tightening.
However, hopes for a Clinton win mounted after FBI Director James Comey informed Congress over the weekend that it had "not changed its conclusions" on the private email server maintained by the Democratic candidate
According to the final Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation project, Democrat Hillary Clinton has about a 90% chance of defeating Republican Donald Trump in the race for the White House.
Markets have tended to see Clinton as the status quo candidate, and news favoring her bid often boosts risk appetite.
Meanwhile, oil traders continued to weigh prospects of a coordinated production cut among major global oil producers.
OPEC reached an agreement to cap output to a range of 32.5 million to 33.0 million barrels per day in talks held in Algeria in late September. However, the 14-member oil group said it won't finalize details on individual output quotas until its next official meeting in Vienna on November 30.
The possibility that producers could walk away empty-handed from the November meeting looms large after Iraq, Iran, Nigeria and Libya all signaled they might not take part in the proposed production cut deal. Russia's unclear stance is also fueling uncertainty.