WTI crude futures surge on hope of OPEC's production cuts

 U.S. oil prices shot up 4.45 percent Monday, on hope of deeper production cuts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partnering countries.

The OPEC and its partnering countries are scheduled to hold ministerial meetings later this week to review production policies and proposed deeper cuts in the second quarter and afterwards.

The sharp rebound on Monday marked the steepest growth since September 2019, and snapped a six-day losing streak.

The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for April delivery settled at 46.75 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The oil markets went up in early Monday trading and Brent prices jumped almost 2 dollars per barrel, supported by market anticipations of stronger OPEC cuts to be decided on in Thursday's meeting of the group, said a research note by JBC Energy on Monday.

Still, Bank of America Global Research on Monday cut its expectations of averaged prices of Brent and WTI crude oil futures in 2020 by 8 dollars per barrel to 54 dollars per barrel and 49 dollars per barrel, respectively.

Bank of America Global Research contributed the cut of forecast to fading economic growth, and predicted that U.S. crude oil supply growth in 2020 could fall to 500,000 barrels per day.