By Christopher Alessi and Dan Molinski 

Oil prices rebounded slightly Wednesday from Tuesday's drop as investors weigh concerns that global output could outstrip demand against potential supply cuts from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies.

Light, sweet crude for December delivery ended 1% higher at $56.25 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude ended up 1% at $66.12 a barrel. Wednesday's price increase in the U.S. crude-oil benchmark, known as West Texas Intermediate, ended a 12-session losing streak for WTI that was the longest of all time going back to 1983 when crude oil futures first began trading in New York.

WTI had its steepest plummet in over three years on Tuesday, ending 7.1% down at its lowest closing price this year, $55.69 a barrel, while Brent closed down 6.6%. Both benchmarks have slid roughly 25% since reaching four-year highs at the start of October, leaving them well into a bear market, which is roughly defined as a 20% decline from a recent peak.

"Investor sentiment in the oil market has deteriorated meaningfully as evidenced by the drop in bullish positions from the Commitments of Traders report," said Rob Haworth, a senior investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management. "Prices are near a key technical level from early last year and may find some support in the near term. If stock-market sentiment improves, that may be enough for oil prices to tread water into year-end."

Still, Mr. Haworth said much will hinge on how U.S. production and inventory data unfolds with growing production and rising inventories likely to pressure prices.

The Energy Information Administration is due to release its weekly report on U.S. oil inventories on Thursday morning. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expect, on average, that stockpiles rose 2.2 million barrels last week.

The American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, was due to release its own report later Wednesday.

OPEC and its allies outside the cartel, led by Russia, signaled Sunday they could decide in December to hold back output by around 1 million barrels a day, amid signs the market will be oversupplied in 2019.

That prospect bolstered prices at the start of the week, before President Trump sent out a tweet criticizing any cut by the Saudis and OPEC, triggering a renewed selloff.

"OPEC's failure to respond to Trump's remarks yesterday generated additional uncertainty," Commerzbank analysts said Wednesday in a note.

The International Energy Agency warned Wednesday that global oil supply was on pace to significantly outstrip demand, as Russia, Saudi Arabia and the U.S. are pumping out crude at record levels.

Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, said the report had a silver lining, with the IEA reiterating its demand growth forecast for this year and next, at 1.3 million barrels a day and 1.4 million barrels a day, respectively.

That forecast contrasted with OPEC's monthly oil market report, released Tuesday, which predicted a slowdown in global demand growth by 40,000 barrels a day this year and 70,000 barrels a day next year.

OPEC and its allies are set to gather in Vienna starting Dec. 6, where they may decide to cut production to reduce global supplies and boost prices.

Write to Christopher Alessi at christopher.alessi@wsj.com and Dan Molinski at Dan.Molinski@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 14, 2018 16:19 ET (21:19 GMT)