Oil prices fell 1% on Wednesday, ending three days of gains, as industry sources pointed to rising U.S. crude stockpiles and hawkish remarks from Fed Chair Jerome Powell that signalled slower rate cuts this year.

Brent futures were down 67 cents or 0.87% at $76.33 a barrel by 0936 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude dropped 75 cents or 1.02% to $72.57 a barrel.

The declines come after three days of gains during which Brent climbed 3.6% and WTI rose 3.7%.

"Oil prices resumed their downtrend as the macro environment weighed on sentiment, with Jerome Powell indicating that the U.S. Fed was not in a rush to lower rates," said Harry Tchilinguirian, head of research at Onyx Capital Group.

"At the same time, traders are eying this afternoon's weekly U.S. EIA oil data release, looking to see if the sizeable 9 million barrel build in crude stocks reported by the API yesterday materialises in the official data."

U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Tuesday the economy is in a good place and the Fed isn't rushing to cut interest rates further, but is prepared to do it if inflation drops or the job market weakens.

Higher interest rates increase the cost of borrowing, which can slow economic activity and dampen demand for oil.

"We saw a substantial price increase in recent days. So probably (there is) some profit-taking following the large crude build reported by API, but that might have been influenced by unfavourable weather impacting crude exports as well as refinery maintenance," said UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo.

Source: Investing.com